


Blame it on the Alcohol

by CaptainErica



Category: Big Bang (Band), K-pop
Genre: I don't do sad or angst so i promise, M/M, There is drinking, burgeoning alcoholism that's fixed pretty quickly, sequel to Oil Lamps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-21 01:10:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 30,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10674600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainErica/pseuds/CaptainErica
Summary: Seunghyun can't think about Youngbae in any way that's not strictly neutral without his mind yelling at him to grab something to drink, and he can't figure out why.





	1. Alcohol

“If Jiyong doesn’t call me back soon...” Youngbae mutters under his breath as he hides under the desk in his spare room. Not that he would do anything, as he was currently too worried to leave the safety of his spare room and the comfort of the desk over his head.

He wouldn’t be upset with Jiyong, either, as it was still uncommon for the man to actually call him or answer the phone at all. That wouldn’t stop Daesung from calling, though, as Youngbae and Daesung had become rather close; especially since Daesung and Jiyong had started officially dating two weeks previously. Youngbae remembered the day that it happened rather vividly as he had called Jiyong in a frenzy over basically the exact same thing he was hiding over today. It was four in the afternoon and he was hiding under a desk, and even though he knew that that sounded ridiculous, he couldn’t make himself get up and go out into the other room. 

Seunghyun’s drinking was getting terrible and in the last two weeks, starting the day that Youngbae had called Jiyong in a frenzy, he had found his way over to Youngbae’s apartment at least four times.Youngbae isn’t easily shaken, but he’s worried for Seunghyun and he’s not sure what to do. Seunghyun would show up on his doorstep at random, completely drunk and agitated; acting like he had something he wanted to say, but not sure how to say it or why he wanted to in the first place. The first time he’d shown up had been the worst of the times until this one; the other two times he had just shouted drunkenly at Youngbae about nothing in particular for about an hour or so before falling asleep on the couch.

It wasn’t that Seunghyun was scary or intimidating, it was that he was irritating. He was incessant and refused to back down and leave him alone.

The ringing of the phone in his hand made him jump slightly, startled, before he pressed ‘talk’ and held it up to his ear. “Hello,” he whispers, peeking around the edge of the desk at the door.

“Youngbae, what the hell is going on? Seunghyun called me just after we hung up and spent almost an  _ hour _ rambling to me, basically incoherently, about how you were treating him horribly or something.” Jiyong says, his voice carrying a tone of annoyance.

Youngbae’s eyes go wide and he leans forward. “So he’s not angry anymore?” He asks, unfolding his legs and moving out from under the desk.

“He sounded more upset than angry...What’s going on Youngbae?” Jiyong sounded worried, and Youngbae winces slightly;  _ he _ was supposed to be the strong one that fixed the problems, Jiyong was the one who was supposed to have the problems that needed fixing.

Youngbae stops in the center of the room and shoots a quick glance at the door before moving to sit on the couch opposite the desk. He drags a hand over his face and sighs, “I don’t know, Ji, I really don’t.” He says heavily, his eyes closed in defeat. “He just keeps showing up here, drunk as anything, and shouts at me for awhile.” He mutters, and he can hear Jiyong sigh on the other end of the line. “Not necessarily angrily, but…”

“Any idea  _ why _ he’s shouting at  _ you _ of all people?” He asks, and Youngbae shrugs before letting out another sigh.

“You just spent an hour on the phone with him...I was going to ask you.” He says, and Jiyong gives a slightly humorless laugh.

“I don’t know Bae, I really don’t.” Jiyong is quiet for a second and Youngbae wonders what he’s thinking. “He said you had locked yourself in your spare room.” Jiyong says finally, and Youngbae leans his head back and squeezes his eyes shut. “Well, I think that’s what he said, he was slurring and really making no sense. But still, why are you hiding? If he’s just shouting at you it can’t be that bad.”

Youngbae sighs again and shakes his head. “I’m not  _ hiding, _ ” He says, frowning, though that’s basically what he’s doing. “I wanted some quiet, and the only place I could get it was as far from a locked door as possible.” He says, a little frustrated.

“But...but  _ why _ ?” He asks, and Youngbae shakes his head again, switching the phone to his other hand and sitting up.

“I don’t really know. When he’s yelling at me, it’s fine. He’s just lecturing but I can’t understand him because he’s so drunk. But then today he got angry with me, told me it was  _ my _ fault...and kept at me until I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I came in here.” He says, feeling stupid even as he says it. He can’t believe he was letting a man who was so drunk that he could barely stand straight...but he was.

“What did he try to do?” Jiyong asks softly, and Youngbae feels frustrated and uncertain.

“Nothing, he just...he just wouldn’t leave me alone, and I couldn’t...I hadn’t  _ done _ anything!” He says, defensive. “So I came in here and locked the door and he didn’t stop pounding on the door for about 15 minutes.” He can hear Jiyong say something to Daesung and he closes his eyes again, humiliation taking over.

“Is he still there?” Daesung asks, obviously having taken the phone from Jiyong.

“I don’t know. I didn’t hear him leave, but I also didn’t hear him call Jiyong so who knows.” Youngbae says, letting his head fall backward again.

“Alright, he’s probably passed out by now, Jiyong said that he was very intoxicated.” Youngbae lets out a small laugh at Daesung’s calm voice and choice of words.

“Yes, yes he was. Yes...he probably is.” Youngbae says flatly, and Daesung sighs lightly.

“Does he mention anything when you go in to work?” Daesung asks, and Youngbae blinks, trying to refocus on the conversation.

“Um..no, I think he’s too drunk to remember any of this happening...the other times I brought him home after he passed out.” 

“Oh, right...maybe you should...Maybe you should wait and ask him what the problem is?” Daesung suggests, and Youngbae smiles despite the situation.

“Thanks for trying to help Daesung.” He says, and Daesung sighs on the other end of the phone. “I will go check if he’s still here and if he’s passed out I will wait until he wakes up to talk to him.”

“Wait!” Jiyong yells and Youngbae hears a short scuffle in the background as Jiyong and Daesung fight over the phone. “Wait, Youngbae.” Jiyong says, slightly out of breath but obviously the victor. “Just be careful, ok? I know you’re a big strong guy but you’re kind of short so he could probably take you.” Youngbae is silent for a moment as he lets Jiyong’s seriously spoken words of advice sink in. Then he bursts out laughing.

“Thanks Ji, I always knew I could count on you to make me feel better about myself.”

“You are very welcome, now go on out there and figure out what’s up!” Jiyong says, and Youngbae can practically hear the cheeky smile on his best friend’s face.

“Alright, bye.” He says, before ending the call and setting the phone down beside him on the couch. He takes in a deep breath and holds it for a couple of seconds, trying to calm down his suddenly racing heart, and then lets it out and pushes himself up off of the couch.

He walks over to the door and presses his ear against it. Unlike his friend Jiyong’s apartment, Youngbae’s spare room opened onto the hallway and was across from his bedroom, instead of leading into the living room. Not hearing anything, he slowly unlocks the door and pushes it open just a crack so that he can peek out into the hallway. Deciding that the coast is clear, he walks out into the hall. He walks cautiously down toward the kitchen, checking it briefly to assess whether there was any damage, before turning toward the living room. 

Youngbae pauses for a moment, calming himself down again as he stands outside the living room, listening for anything that could alert him to Seunghyun’s presence. Hearing nothing, he takes a couple of steps forward only to stop quickly when he hears something move back down the hallway. He takes in a breath and starts back down the way that he had come, stopping in front of the door to his bedroom. It was open, and Youngbae wonders briefly why he hadn’t noticed that when he was leaving the spare room across the hall. He moves closer and hears the sound again. He nods, more to reassure himself than anything else, and walks into the room. 

It was dark and it took him a moment to adjust to the lack of light, but once he did, he could see Seunghyun sprawled across his bed. “Aish,” He says on an exhale as he relaxes completely and walks over to stand next to the bed.

He looks down and shakes his head at his passed out friend. Seunghyun’s mouth was hanging open, his eyes only mostly closed, and he was snoring faintly. Youngbae sighs and squats next to the bed so that his face is closer to being level with Seunghyun’s, and he cocks his head to the side.

“What’s going on, Seunghyun?” He whispers, leaning forward just a little bit. “What’s the matter?” Youngbae sighs again and runs a hand over his face before standing up and backing away from the bed. Now he just needed to keep himself busy until Seunghyun woke up. 

_ Great _ , he thinks dejectedly,  _ just exactly how I wanted to spend my Friday evening. _ Not that he had anything else planned, really, so he shouldn’t be complaining. But what if something had come up? Or, what if he had decided that he wanted to go out and have a drink?  _ Yeah, right. _ He closes his eyes and shakes his head, making his way out of his bedroom and shutting the door softly behind him. He wouldn’t have gone out, so he really didn’t have anything to be upset about...except being scared out of his mind. So, really, what were a few hours out of his life when he could potentially end this weird problem with Seunghyun?

***

On Fridays, Youngbae left work at 2:00pm and went to a dance studio just down the road a short ways. He walked, always, and he stayed there until around 5:00pm when he would come back, get into his car, and drive home. Seunghyun knew this because he was both Youngbae’s supervisor, and Youngbae’s friend. He also knew this because he could see Youngbae walking down the road from the window next to his desk, and it had become a ridiculously bad habit of his to sit around and wait for Youngbae to walk back to his car before he would allow himself to go home.

Of course, once he got home he really had nothing to do, so he always rationalized his need to stay late and wait for Youngbae as just a chance to be out of his apartment for longer than normal; he was also able to get extra work done. Not that he was a shut-in, quite the opposite, actually. Seunghyun truly enjoyed going out to a bar or a club and going drinking and hanging out with his friends. He wasn’t a huge fan of dancing, so he always avoided the dance floor, but that didn’t really matter. The point is, Seunghyun always had things to do on a Friday night,  _ always. _ So his excuses for his irrational need to wait that extra hour or two (he was technically done with work at 3:00pm) were just that: excuses.

Seunghyun tears his gaze away from the window, Youngbae no longer visible as he had disappeared into the building that housed the dance studio. His Friday night routine was becoming tedious, and he was starting to despair over ever finding a girlfriend. He gives a rather humorless laugh and leans forward, resting his elbows on his desk so that he can place his forehead in his hands. Ever since Jiyong had made that rather flippant remark about Seunghyun’s love-life being even sadder than Youngbae’s, he had been seriously thinking about why that was so.

He didn’t exactly have a lack of women in his life, he also didn’t lack opportunities or dates. No, what he lacked was attachment and attraction. It had been more than a year since he had actually  _ dated _ someone, and even longer than that since he had been truly attracted to the people he was seeing. He lets out a deep sigh and lets his mind wander back to Youngbae.

Youngbae should, by all rights, have a worse love life than Seunghyun. Hell, the younger man didn’t even  _ try _ to date. He only went out when forced (normally by Seunghyun) and he neither drank nor really got into meeting new people. He would go out and dance for a little while at the clubs, of course, and people would flock to him; but he would never actually pick up a date, or do anything that could lead to him dating someone. This both upset and relieved Seunghyun every single time they went out together, and Seunghyun couldn’t explain why it always relieved him when Youngbae would come wandering back from the dancefloor, a smile firmly planted on his mouth, ready to leave.

Seunghyun takes a deep breath and scrubs his hands over his face before sitting up and looking around him quickly. Satisfied that there was no one in the room -  _ why would there be? Youngbae is the only person who shares your office  _ -he stands up and walks to the cabinet behind him to get a drink. He was loathe to admit it, but it was getting to the point where he had to: his drinking was becoming a problem. He had gotten drunk almost every night in the past few weeks and on a few of those occasions he couldn’t actually remember what had happened. On the nights that he didn’t get drunk, he still drank, and he was starting to worry that this was becoming a real problem. He knocks back the drink he had poured while thinking and pours himself another, moving to stand in front of the window and look down at the street below.

It was barely 2:30 in the afternoon, and he was already on his second drink. He finishes it on a sigh and pours himself a third. Lately, whenever he thought about Youngbae for too long he had to fight the urge to drink; a fight that he tended to lose rather spectacularly. He was on his fourth, or possibly fifth, when he catches sight of Youngbae exiting the building across the street and walking back across the road. Seunghyun steps back from the window a little unsteadily and focuses his gaze on the clock behind his desk:  _ 2:45 _ . 

“What’s he doing leaving so early?” Seunghyun mutters to himself, finishing his drink and setting the glass down on his desk. He would need to find out what was going on, he decides, as he watches Youngbae’s car pull out onto the road in front of the building. 

His walking only slightly unsteady, he grabs his suit jacket off of the back of his chair, throws it on and heads for the door. He checks his pockets quickly before leaving, and being certain that his keys and wallet were accounted for, he exits his office and waves at the secretary as he passes. There was a pack of beer sitting on the roof of his car, a giant bow tied around it and a note that he quickly discerns is from his young friend Seungri:  _ Can’t come out tonight; I’ve got myself a date. _ Seunghyun snorts and lifts the pack off of his car, settling it in the passenger’s seat and buckling himself in.

By the time he reaches Youngbae’s apartment building, there are three empty bottles on the floor of his car, and one half-full in his hand. He parks in the same spot he always does and waits for a couple of seconds, finishing off the beer in his hand before grabbing another and pushing his door open. It hits the wall of the parking garage with a dull  _ thud _ and he lets out a short laugh before realizing that the door might be scratched. His face falls into a scowl and he moves to get out of the car, only to find that he can’t because his seatbelt is still on. He scowls harder, starting to become rather upset at his current situation, and manages to get the belt off and get out of the car. He scowls at the door before slamming it shut and looking around him to try and remember where he was and why he was there.

_ Youngbae _ . He registers the name in his head and nods; he was going to find out why Youngbae hadn’t kept him waiting at the office until 5:00 like usual. It just wasn’t fair of the man to change up his schedule without any warning! How dare he catch Seunghyun by surprise like that. Deciding that it must be Youngbae’s fault for his current situation, he takes a quick swig from his beer and heads toward the elevator to get to Youngbae’s floor. He feels slightly nauseous as the elevator comes to a stop on the 8th floor and lets him out, and he decides that it’s Youngbae’s fault he feels sick; the man should live on a lower floor.

He stumbles over to Youngbae’s door and knocks, but when the door isn’t answered immediately, he hits harder, impatient. “Open up Youngbae!” He shouts, fists hitting the door a little louder than intended as he leans his head against it to shout more effectively.

The door opens slowly and Seunghyun’s eyes land on a shirtless and confused Youngbae. For a moment, Seunghyun is afraid he’s caught Youngbae with a girl, but he doesn’t hear anyone else and it doesn’t really look like Youngbae was interrupted from anything important or embarrassing. Youngbae’s eyes travel from Seunghyun’s red face down to the bottle in his hand, and Seunghyun sees him immediately tense. This confuses Seunghyun, mind swimming to remember why he’d even come and why he’s so relieved that Youngbae doesn’t have someone in his apartment.

“What are you doing?” He asks, his voice a little lower than normal, and Youngbae’s eyes go wide, but he schools that response as he steps back just a little, clearly uncertain about if he wants to let Seunghyun in.

“Nothing, I was just going to shower...” He says, his voice holding much less certainty than it normally did. Seunghyun finds himself more confused by that.

“You’re acting different lately.” Seunghyun says, his voice starting to rise as the confusion really starts to hit him, brain running around in circles trying to chase his point and match it with Youngbae’s reactions.

“No, what are you talking about Seunghyun?” Youngbae asks, arms crossing and brows furrowing, and Seunghyun copies the facial expression.

“It’s only three o’clock. You’re supposed to still be at the dance studio and I’m supposed to still be in the office, waiting for you to come back so that I can leave.” Seunghyun says, only it’s slurred and it’s really hard for him to get all of the words out properly and that just makes him frustrated, so he stamps his foot.

“I don’t...” Youngbae starts, but then Seunghyun lurches forward with a frustrated noise, and Youngbae backs up, surprise running across his face.

“Hey!” Seunghyun shouts, and Youngbae backs up some more as Seunghyun follows him. He makes it to the living room, but Seunghyun feels the need to keep talking, shouting about something, and then he remembers why he’s there, again, and starts lecturing Youngbae about  _ courtesy _ , and  _ politeness _ , and how he shouldn’t change up his schedule like he was without  _ telling him. _

Eventually, Seunghyun notes that Youngbae has gotten up again and is shufflin down the hall, where he shuts himself into his study. “Youngbae!” Seunghyun shouts again, chasing after him only to be blocked by the door to the study. “Youngbae let me in!” He shouts, pounding on the door.

He tries the handle but the door is obviously locked so he can’t get in. Frustrated even more he pounds harder on the door. After a few more minutes of this, he calms down, forgetting what it was that he was trying to get from behind the door. He turns toward the room behind him and sees the bed, suddenly exhausted he walks toward it, only to hear something beep from within his jacket.

Momentarily startled by the noise, he looks around him trying to find its source. Realizing that it had come from his pocket, he pulls out his cellphone and sees that he has a text from Seungri. He dismisses it without a thought and decides that he should call Jiyong, because maybe Jiyong could tell him why Youngbae makes him want to drink and why he was in Youngbae’s apartment.

The next thing Seunghyun remembers is waking up; his head pounding and a sharp ringing sounding in his ears. He sits up with a groan, rolls his stiff shoulders -  _ must have passed out -  _ he thinks, rubbing a hand over his face before stilling. He could hear singing and movement, neither of which ever occurred in his own apartment without his knowledge. He lets his hand fall back down next to him and slowly opens his eyes. 

The room that he was in was dark, but his eyes slowly adjust, allowing him to see that he was definitely in a bedroom. He could also see that it wasn’t his own bedroom. He looks around him, trying to remember how he got there, or more importantly, where he was, when the door to the room opened and in walked Youngbae.

“Oh! You’re awake.” Youngbae says, and Seunghyun notes the worried.

“Uh, yeah...” He says, deciding that he must be at Youngbae’s house. This decision worries him, but not as much as the look on Youngbae’s face does. 

“How do you feel?” Youngbae asks, turning the light on only to immediately shut it back off when Seunghyun gives a loud hiss of pain. “Sorry! Sorry!” Youngbae says, hurrying forward. “I wasn’t thinking, do you need anything?” Seunghyun shakes his head and puts one hand out to keep Youngbae from getting any closer.

“It’s not your fault. I think I need to sit this headache out.” He says, and Youngbae just stands there for a couple of seconds, obviously wanting to say something.

“Come out into the kitchen when you’re ready.” He says finally, and then turns around and leaves.

Seunghyun stares after him for a couple of seconds, suddenly far more worried about what may have happened before he passed out than he had been previously. Youngbae was never this hesitant, never this serious. He almost didn’t want to go out to the kitchen, but then he looked over at the digital clock on Youngbae’s nightstand and sees what time it is.

“It can’t be Saturday morning.” He says, his eyes widening in shock. “No, it’s not 7:00 in the damn morning on Saturday.” He says. He pushes up off of Youngbae’s bed and stumbles toward the door. “Tell me I wasn’t passed out on your bed all night.” He says as he walks past the entryway, noting that his shoes were lined up nicely next to Youngbae’s. His voice carried the short distance from the entryway to the open kitchen and Youngbae jumps at the sudden and unexpected noise.

Youngbae is only barely able to stop himself from falling and straightens himself out before he checks the pan of eggs he had been working on. “That would be lying.” He says once he’s situated.

_ Aw shit. _ Seunghyun thinks before letting out a deep sigh and sitting down at the breakfast counter.  _ What  _ is  _ going on with me? _ He thinks before shaking his head. Hopefully Youngbae can help him fill in the events of the night before and then he can work on this new and unfortunate habit of his. 

***

Seunghyun didn’t look angry, but then, the other three times he had seen him after one of these episodes he hadn’t been angry either. Youngbae stifles a sigh and dishes up the eggs he had been making onto two plates before placing one in front of Seunghyun. He covers up his smile as the older man groans by turning to retrieve his own plate.

“Not hungry?” He asks, and Seunghyun just pushes the plate away from him before dropping his head to the countertop with a groan. Youngbae smiles, feeling satisfied by his friend’s pain even though he feels instantly bad for it.

Seunghyun takes a deep breath and lifts his head up, looking directly at Youngbae who was very slowly eating his eggs. “Just eggs? Not even toast to go with it?” He asks, momentarily distracted.

Youngbae blinks and pauses mid-chew before swallowing and smiling rather cheekily at him. “You kind of interrupted my breakfast cooking with your rather exuberant entrance.” Seunghyun tries to roll his eyes, but the action causes pain to shoot through his head, so he just stares at Youngbae instead. “You’re rather loud for someone with such a terrible headache that they can’t even roll their eyes properly.” Youngbae finishes, and Seunghyun just sticks his tongue out the man, not sure how to respond.

“So...How’d I get here? I was supposed to go out with Seungri last night...” Seunghyun says after a moment of silence, and he swears that he can see Youngbae flinch slightly.

“You drove.” He says, his voice flat, and Seunghyun is even more confused.

“What’s the matter Youngbae? What happened?” 

“Nothing...bad?” Youngbae says as he stands up to put Seunghyun’s plate away, then winces, because that’s both not entirely true and doesn’t really help Seunghyun understand. “Are you sure you don’t want something for your head?

“What my head wants are answers.” Seunghyun says, sitting up fully and crossing his arms over his chest. Youngbae turns around slowly, gauging Seunghyun’s mood. The older man was trying to pout, but it was obvious that his headache made any type of facial expression painful to accomplish.

Youngbae lets out a deep sigh before moving back to the counter and sitting down across from Seunghyun. “You showed up at around 3:00pm, completely drunk.” He says, and Seunghyun gives him a look of confusion.

“You’re not usually home at 3:00pm.” He says, and Youngbae tilts his head to the side.

“You said that when you came in. Or something like that...” He says, “But I couldn’t really understand. You were shouting and your words were slurred...” Youngbae takes a deep breath and his brows furrow. “What happened after I left work yesterday?”

Seunghyun stares at Youngbae for a moment, letting his words digest. He didn’t remember coming here, but he  _ did _ remember being confused and upset. He also remembered the abnormally high number of drinks he had downed in the office before noticing Youngbae leaving the dance studio...

“Ah, I don’t know!” He says running his hands through his hair in frustration. “I remember you leaving and then I started drinking and then I saw you come back for your car and wanted to ask why you had left early.”

Youngbae’s mouth pulls into a tight frown and he looks down at his hands on the edge of the counter. “Well, that explains why you were here this time.” He says slowly, keeping his head down so that Seunghyun can’t see his face.

“I guess but you said I was shouting and I don’t....” Seunghyun pauses for a moment as Youngbae’s words finally registered in his painful brain. “This time?” he asks, and Youngbae just nods, his eyes never leaving his hands. “What do you mean, ‘this time’? I would remember waking up in your apartment more than this once.” He says, confused and suddenly wondering if this could explain Youngbae’s recent change in mood at work.

“That’s because the other three times I brought you home after you had passed out.”  He says. Seunghyun sucks in a breath and pushes himself back from the counter.

“I think I’m going to need something for my headache.” He says, and Youngbae looks up at him quickly. “I can’t think properly while in pain.” He adds, letting a small and pitiful smile grace his face. Youngbae nod and gets up quickly, rummaging through the cabinet behind him to find something that might help him. Once he finds it, he hands it over along with a glass of water and sits back down.

“Why were you drinking? It was only two in the afternoon!” Youngbae says, and Seunghyun grimaces at the nagging tone.

“You’re not my mother. I’m in enough pain as it is, don’t chastise me.” He says, his voice coming out in a whine. Youngbae shakes his head, crossing his arms over his chest as he does so.

“But your drinking is what led you here.” He says, his voice flat and lacking any emotion. “Don’t you think that the drinking part should be figured out?” He asks, his voice rising in what Seunghyun recognized as hope.

“Why didn’t you bring me home?” He asks, ignoring Youngbae’s question. “If you brought me home the other..three times?” Youngbae nods, “Then why didn’t you bring me home this time?” Youngbae sighs and drops his hands to the counter, his fingers playing idly with the edge.

“Because you never remembered coming here, and I wanted you to know that you had.” He says, his voice low and his eyes downcast.

Seunghyun looks at him for a second and then laughs, “Daesung told you to, didn’t he?” Youngbae looks up, surprise written on his face, before he controls himself and lets out a snort of laughter.

“Yeah...he said I had to stop avoiding the issue...”

Seunghyun nods in agreement. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I kept hoping it would stop.” Youngbae says, shrugging lightly, “it had only happened three times in two weeks...which is kind of a lot but I figured that since it had never happened before, it would just...stop.” He sighs, “But it didn’t and each time I never knew what to expect.” He laughs a little humorlessly and shrugs again, looking away from Seunghyun and toward the window over the sink.

“Ahh, Youngbae...” Seunghyun says, leaning forward, but Youngbae leans away and shakes his head.

“You’ve done this a few times and...” Youngbae shakes his head again, his arms flexing as he sits up straighter and tenses while thinking about what to say. “You need to figure out what’s going on because you could have hurt yourself, or someone else. You drove here  _ drunk _ !” Youngbae’s face was set in a rather flat mask, the worry wrapped up behind it. Seunghyun stares at him for a couple of moments, blinking far more than necessary in an attempt to comprehend.

Youngbae’s tone was so distant, so uncaring...it felt so very unlike his normally warm and loving self, and maybe it’s because his head is still pounding, but that stings. Seunghyun takes in a deep breath and shakes his head before setting his face into a very business-like frown.

“I’m sorry to have caused you so much trouble.” He says, and Youngbae’s face instantly softens, his arms falling to his sides. “I’ll just leave now and try to figure out what’s going on for myself.” He says, and Youngbae’s mouth drops open and he leans forward.

“No! Seunghyun I didn’t mean...” Youngbae says, reaching forward to grab one of Seunghyun’s hands off of the counter. Seunghyun just shakes his head and pulls it away.

“I’ll see you Monday morning.” He says, standing up and pushing away from the counter. “Thank you for letting me sleep here last night.” He adds as he walks out into the entryway. He can’t stop the small smile that jumps to his face as he grabs his shoes out of their spot in the neat order that Youngbae had obviously arranged them into the night before.

He shakes his head to rid his face of the smile, and takes a deep breath before shoving his feet into his expensive dress shoes. He keeps his face to the door as he hears Youngbae shuffle out into the entryway to stop behind him.

“What’s the matter, Seunghyun?” He asks, and Seunghyun just shakes his head, opening the door and stepping out into the hall.

Seunghyun shuts the door behind him without even a short goodbye, and walks slowly toward the elevator, trying desperately to remember what had made him come over to Youngbae’s the day before. It wasn’t until he was buckled into the driver’s seat of his car, after cleaning up the bottles all over the passenger’s side, that he checked his phone and saw the message he had ignored the night before.

_ Seungri: Hey! Sorry I can’t come out tonight! Did you get the gift I left you?? _

Seunghyun lets out a soft chuckle and shakes his head before typing a quick reply. He shoots a glance over at the half empty pack of beer on his passenger seat and instantly frowns. While the amount he drank from the pack was not enough to get him as drunk as he was the night before, he couldn’t help but to feel like it was partly to blame for his current situation. Maybe he should cut back...

He shakes his head and focuses on driving back to his house. He still couldn’t believe that he had driven out to Youngbae’s apartment while completely drunk. Seunghyun sighs and pulls out onto the road. What had he been thinking, drinking at work? As he pulls into the parking area for his apartment he has a small flash of memory: He was sitting at his desk, thinking about his love-life...Well, that wasn’t enough for a drinking binge. He blows out a large puff of air and closes his eyes for a moment before willing himself to get up and out of his car. He takes the pack of beer with him and slowly makes his way up to his apartment.

_ What was I thinking? _ He asks himself while he waits for the elevator to arrive, flipping his keys idly around his fingers as he does so. He smiles slightly at the young woman who exits the elevator when it stops before making his way inside and pressing the button for his floor. The woman looks back over her shoulder at him as she walks away, and instead of the smirk and wink he had been planning to send her, he gave her just a small smile and light head nod. The doors slide closed and he furrows his eyebrows together; that wasn’t like him, not at all.  _ Youngbae _ . His mind whispers, and he remembers the guilt that he was supposed to be feeling.

Seunghyun takes a deep breath and refocuses his mind on the task at hand. He needed to think of a reason why he would go to Youngbae’s house, as well as a reason why he would be shouting at the man. It would probably also help to know when he had gone before, as then he would be able to try and remember why he had gone to Youngbae’s those times as well. 

“Ah, what is my problem?” He asks, staring at his reflection in the mirrored wall of the elevator. It stops and he gets out on his floor. Once inside his apartment, he takes off his shoes, drops the pack of beer on the floor in the entryway, and heads into the kitchen for a glass of water.

Once procured, he sits at the table and considers his problem again. His drinking was getting out of hand, he knew that. There were  _ at least _ four nights that he had blacked out, and on those particular four he knew that he had been at Youngbae’s. Pushing the guilt that he was feeling to the side, Seunghyun tries to recapture the moments before he left his office the night before.  _ Not night, afternoon. _ His mind reminds him, and he smiles; he had left before 3:00pm because Youngbae had left the dance studio early.  _ Why did Youngbae leave the dance studio early? _ Seunghyun shakes his head.

“Not important.” He mutters, closing his eyes and leaning back. “The question is: why did I follow him?” Because that’s what had happened. Suddenly the memory comes back; he had been lamenting over his sad lack of a girlfriend, when he had started thinking about Youngbae and the weird sense of relief that he felt whenever Youngbae didn’t find a date.  _ It’s time for a drink. _ His mind rasps and Seunghyun’s eyes fly open.

“That’s it.” He says, fighting the urge to get up and grab a drink as his mind had commanded. Whenever he thought about that feeling of relief, or really anything that wasn’t strictly neutral and easy to comprehend about Youngbae, he would start drinking. If he were already thinking about Youngbae, then seeing Youngbae leave early and being curious about it would lead him to want to follow the man!

Seunghyun was smiling now, but that was soon wiped away as he realized that he still couldn’t explain why he showed up to Youngbae’s apartment ready to lecture. He lets out another sigh before pushing himself up out of the chair so that he could make his way into the living room to lie down on the couch. 

“Just a quick nap first, then I’ll worry about how to fix this mess.” He mutters to the empty room, closing his eyes and settling in. He lets out a large yawn and falls quickly to sleep.


	2. Dumb Idea

The door slowly shuts in his face and Youngbae is frozen to the spot. He should have handled the situation better, that much he knew, but there had been something about Seunghyun sitting across from him at the counter with a plate of eggs pushed off to the side and a pained expression on his face, that made Youngbae unable to function like he knew he was supposed to.

He sighs deeply and runs a hand over his face, forcing himself to get over the shock he was feeling and at least move. After this encounter, he could definitely say that he was worried for Seunghyun. The man was obviously drinking far more heavily and often than he ever had in the past, and it had escalated rather quickly.

“What’s the matter?” Youngbae mutters, nudging one of his impeccably clean dress shoes with his toe so that it was back to being parallel with it’s match. He shakes his head and turns away from the entryway, heading back toward the kitchen.

Youngbae knew that Seunghyun liked to go out most nights, and he definitely liked to drink, it had never really been to excess; and Youngbae used to be able to count the number of times he had seen Seunghyun staggering drunk on only one hand. He shakes his head and moves to the sink, turning on the water to wash the breakfast dishes. 

He had never really agreed with Seunghyun’s need to go out all the time. Seunghyun would pester him into going about once a month, and youngbae would agree, mostly to humor his friend. They would go to a bar or a club and Youngbae would dance while Seunghyun and his friends stood around, or sat around, drinking. Then, when he was tired or just sick of all of the people throwing themselves at him, he would walk back to where Seunghyun was and ask to leave. Seunghyun would then  _ always _ look around him, ask if Youngbae had found a girl (and sigh when Youngbae shook his head ‘no’) before setting down his drink and following Youngbae out.

_ Every _ .  _ Single _ .  _ Time _ . Youngbae didn’t go out often as he didn’t drink and hell, he didn’t really like all of the attention that people paid him when he was on the dance floor.  _ Liar! _ His mind practically shouts, and he lets out a laugh as he finishes up the last of the dishes and wipes his hands on a dish towel. He grabs a glass and fills it with water before leaning back against the counter. He liked being watched, especially on stage, which was why he spent so much time practicing dancing. What he didn’t particularly enjoy was being attacked on the dance floor by drunk people.

Youngbae allows a scowl to appear on his lips for only a brief moment before he shakes his head and refocuses. Seunghyun was acting recklessly and dangerously by getting drunk like this, but what Youngbae couldn’t explain was his own ridiculous overreaction to it. 

Youngbae shakes his head in frustration;  _ why am I so afraid of him? _ “I’m not.” He says aloud, the words piercing the silence of his empty apartment.  _ Then what’s going on? _ “I have no idea.” He mutters, dragging a hand over his face and sighing.

Deciding that talking to himself wouldn’t fix the problem, and neither would dwelling, Youngbae pushes himself away from the counter and grabs his phone off of the breakfast bar. He toys with the device in his hands for a couple of moments before shoving it into the pocket of his jeans and heading into the living room. He wouldn’t call Jiyong and Daesung over this ridiculous problem. He’d already gotten them involved and he felt embarrassed about the fact that both men knew that he had hidden under his desk instead of doing anything to deal with the situation; no, it would be best to leave them out of it.

Oh Jiyong and Daesung. Just the thought of them brought a smile to Youngbae’s face. He had spent his entire life waiting for someone to come along and make Jiyong as happy as Daesung did. Well, maybe not his entire life. Youngbae laughs lightly as he sits down on the couch and leans back. No, there was a time when Youngbae had thought that all Jiyong needed was him, and then everything would be fine. Luckily for both of them, or more for Youngbae because Jiyong had been effectively clueless about Youngbae’s increased affection during that time, Youngbae got over it relatively quickly; he realized that Jiyong and him were far more  _ friend _ than anything else.

Youngbae sighs again, hating himself even as he does it:  _ sighing is an annoying habit to get into _ , his brain chides and shuts his eyes tightly and shakes his head. Maybe he should just tell Seunghyun that he isn’t into dating girls....”Where the hell did that come from?” Youngbae mutters, shoving his hand through his short hair in frustration. His mind was all over the damn place this morning.

But it would solve at least one problem, Youngbae muses; if Seunghyun knows that Youngbae isn’t interested in all of the girls that throw themselves at him in the clubs, then maybe he won’t ask him to go to them anymore. Youngbae snorts at his own thoughts and shakes his head again. “Like Seunghyun is going to ask me to do  _ anything _ with him  _ ever _ after this morning.” He says, even though he knows, deep down, that whatever happened this morning definitely didn’t end their friendship.

How, exactly, was he supposed to bring the topic up? His mind starts racing to find an answer. There was no really great way to do so...it would make much more sense to wait for Seunghyun to try and force him to go out clubbing, but who knows when the next offer for that would be...Youngbae toys with the phone through the material of his jeans, staring at the pocket while deep in thought.

Maybe if Jiyong invites them all out...The thought was stupid, as it would put Seunghyun directly in contact with alcohol and partying, which Youngbae was starting to believe were not doing the older man any favors. However, if it were the four of them, then Seunghyun wouldn’t be alone drinking; and maybe if Jiyong and Daesung were there, they would be able to pick up on whatever might be going on with Seunghyun.  _ And you could tell him you like guys instead of girls-  _  his mind reminds him, the thought floating through his mind with a distinctly sarcastic glint to it.

“Not that that matters.” Youngbae mutters fiercely; as though he were trying to convince himself of that fact. But it did matter, and the only reason Youngbae could come up with for just exactly  _ why _ it mattered so much was that he hated how Seunghyun always seemed disappointed that he didn’t have a girlfriend.

Youngbae takes a deep breath before pulling the phone out of his pocket; now he just needed to figure out how to convince Jiyong this was a good idea...

_ ~~~~~~ _

_ This was such a bad idea. _ Youngbae had to agree with the rather depressing thought that had just flown through his brain. Jiyong and Youngbae were on the dance floor, a place that they both enjoyed being, and they had left Daesung alone with Seunghyun at a booth somewhere on the other side of the room.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t having fun; he loved dancing and he and Jiyong had always gone out dancing when they were younger as well as whenever Jiyong wasn’t keeping himself holed up in his room. No, the problem was that Jiyong had apparently  _ immediately _ figured out what was wrong with Seunghyun, but was refusing to even hint at what it could be. It also didn’t help that Seunghyun wouldn’t look directly at him, and had been sneaking off to get drinks when he thought that none of them were looking. Seunghyun wasn’t completely drunk, but he was on his way and that was part of the reason why Jiyong and Youngbae had been on the dance floor for over an hour; they were avoiding Seunghyun, and Youngbae had a feeling that Jiyong felt that them being away would help slow down Seunghyun’s alcohol intake.

“I want a drink!” Jiyong shouts into Youngbae’s ear from somewhere behind him. Youngbae nods mutely and allows Jiyong to drag him out of the crush of people and over to the bar.

***

Seunghyun’s lip twitches up in either frustration or amusement, but Daesung can’t tell which from the angle he’s sitting at and Seunghyun is a little too inebriated to be able to decide either. He was watching Jiyong and Youngbae out on the dance floor, where they had been for the past half hour. He hadn’t had a single drink aside from water since they left and he had finished off the awful concoction he had had in his hand, but he was still basically drunk -  _ It’s been less than a half hour since you stopped. _ \- Yes, and he knew very well that just because he wasn’t actively drinking the alcohol didn’t mean it wasn’t still inside of him.

“Aren’t you afraid someone is going to try and dance with him?” Seunghyun asks suddenly, and Daesung just tips his head to the side, his eyes never leaving the side of Seunghyun’s face.

“Why would I be afraid of that?” He asks, and Seunghyun suddenly wishes that he had another drink. Of  _ course _ Daesung had nothing to worry about; Jiyong was irrevocably in love with him and even if he  _ were _ to dance with other people, it wouldn’t mean anything.

“I dunno.” Seunghyun says, before deciding he feels like being mean, “But I mean, what about Youngbae and Jiyong? They’re awfully close, and look at how they are dancing with each other.” Seunghyun notes the rather bored look on Daesung’s face as he obediently turns his head to peer out into the crowd of dancers at his boyfriend and Youngbae.

“They look like they’re having fun.” He says with a slight shrug of his shoulder before turning his focus back to Seunghyun’s profile.

Seunghyun lets out a rather defeated sounding sigh, but doesn’t turn back to the table. “This was an awful idea.” He says, and Daesung tilts his head to the side again and Seunghyun has to stop himself from reaching over and tilting it back. “Youngbae doesn’t like clubs, and I’ve given up drinking.” Daesung lets out a small laugh.

“You have, have you?” He asks, and Seunghyun frowns, remembering the ‘fortifying’ drink he’d had before Jiyong had arrived to pick him up and the 4 others that had followed once they had arrived.

“Starting now.” He says, nodding along with his words as if that would make them more true.

“I hope so, Youngbae is very worried about you.” Daesung says, and Seunghyun blinks, turning away from the dance floor for the first time since Youngbae and Jiyong had gotten up to go over there.

“You aren’t?” He asks, and Daesung smiles, reaching a hand forward to pat Seunghyun’s shoulder.

“Of course I am, and so is Jiyong.” He says, pausing for a short moment to shrug nonchalantly before continuing. “But Youngbae is even more worried than either of us.” Seunghyun snorts and shakes his head, turning back to face the crowd of dancers and letting his eyes search out Youngbae’s form.

“I highly doubt that.” He says, hiding his frown behind a humorless smile. “He hasn’t spoken to me in almost exactly a week.” He says, glancing down at the glass of water he was holding and allowing the frown to appear.

“Have you spoken to him? Maybe he thinks that  _ you _ are upset with  _ him _ .” Daesung suggests, and Seunghyun just sighs, swallowing the rest of the water from the glass and placing it a little more harshly onto the table than he had intended.

“Doesn’t matter.” He mutters, and Daesung lets out a soft sigh before turning to face the crowd of dancers as well.

Seunghyun is secretly disappointed that Daesung gave up on talking to him so quickly, but his attention is quickly diverted as he catches sight of a girl trying to get Youngbae’s attention. He allows a small smirk to form on his face as the girl is very effectively shot down when Youngbae turns away to dance even more closely with Jiyong. The surprise that he was sure was written all over her face at the rejection wasn’t near as satisfying as he had imagined it would be. Instead, he felt himself getting upset that Youngbae had no problem dancing so closely with Jiyong, when there were plenty of other people in the crowd that he could dance with.

_ Or you. _ Seunghyun blinks fiercely and shakes his head to rid it of that thought. No, no he didn’t want Youngbae to dance that closely with him. That wouldn’t be right, especially since they weren’t really speaking with each other at the moment. It didn’t matter  _ why _ that would be a problem, what mattered was that Daesung should definitely be far more worried than he seemed to be. If Seunghyun were dating someone who was dancing all over Youngbae, he would most definitely be worried about it. Not that Youngbae would do anything, but Youngbae was a very, very attractive man; and while Daesung was very attractive, Seunghyun would have to say that he wouldn’t blame Jiyong for going after Youngbae.

_ Not that he would, what are you even thinking? _ Seunghyun shakes his head again and refocuses on the mass of dancing bodies on the floor in front of them. No, no it didn’t matter, and since when did he have such a fierce opinion about Youngbae’s attractiveness?  _ Since you started waiting for him to leave the dance studio on Friday evening. _ He scowls slightly at the thought and looks over at the empty glass on the table, heaving a sigh as he does.

“I’m not letting you have another drink.” Daesung says, his eyebrows raised in challenge.

“Since when were you the boss of me?” Seunghyun says without thinking.

Daesung leans closer to him, his elbow resting on the table between them. “When you became a danger to yourself and others.” He says, his voice calm but commanding and stern. “The day that Youngbae called and told me he was afraid only solidified my role.”

Seunghyun’s lip twitches and he lowers his gaze before turning back toward the crowd. His eyes widen in shock and confusion as he scans the area before him but can’t find Youngbae or Jiyong. “Where’d they go?” He asks, gesturing toward the floor and turning toward Daesung.

Daesung shrugs his shoulders. “Maybe they went to get a drink?” Daesung suggests, leaning back in his seat and folding his arms over his chest.

Seunghyun just shakes his head, “No, no Youngbae doesn’t drink and he doesn’t like clubs why is he even here.”

“Maybe Jiyong wants a drink, and just because Youngbae doesn’t normally drink doesn’t mean that he  _ never _ drinks.” Daesung says, he turns his head briefly toward the floor and a small smile flickers onto his face. “Here they come now.” He nods toward them as they approach and Seunghyun turns to watch them.

Both men had drinks and were deep in conversation about something. Seunghyun tries to stop the scowl that tries to force its way onto his face when Jiyong grabs Youngbae’s arm to steady him as he slides around a pole that he almost ran into.  _ Why so angry? _ Seunghyun turns his scowl inward, cursing his mind’s recent need to torment him.

“Why are you drinking?” Seunghyun says by way of a greeting when the two men are close enough to hear him.

Youngbae blinks and looks over at Jiyong a little uncertainly before he returns his confused gaze to Seunghyun. “Because I’m thirsty?” He says, though it’s more of a question and Seunghyun tries not to let it make him feel stupid. 

Jiyong, obviously impatient to sit down, pushes Youngbae toward the table, forcing him to move Seunghyun away from the edge so that he can sit down. Satisfied, Jiyong sits down on Daesung’s lap, as delicately as if he hadn’t just been dancing dirty out in the crowd. Daesung presses a quick kiss to the back of Jiyong’s neck before shifting so that he could see Youngbae and Seunghyun on the other side of the table.

“Done dancing?” He asks, his wide smile crinkling his eyes. Jiyong smiles and nods.

“Yes! It’s getting so hot out there and Youngbae was being practically  _ mauled _ by all of those scantily clad women.” Jiyong sounds almost appalled, but there was humor glinting in his eyes. Youngbae, his body already flushed from the heat of dancing, turns an even darker shade of red.

“They were not mauling me Ji.” He says, a self-conscious smile on his face.

“They were definitely trying to dance with you. It was all you could do to keep them away.” Jiyong says, leaning forward as he speaks and ending with an exuberant tap to his friend’s nose. Youngbae pulls his head away, scrunching up his mouth in annoyance at the unwanted contact.

“Why were you trying to keep them away?” Seunghyun asks, his voice sounding a little more judgemental than he had intended -  _ I thought you didn’t want him to dance with girls? _ \- 

“Because I didn’t want to dance with them.” Youngbae says, keeping his gaze directed ahead of him and away from Seunghyun.

“You’ll never get a girlfriend if you push all of the girls away.” Seunghyun tries again, still uncertain why he was pushing this.

“I don’t want a girlfriend, Seunghyun.” Youngbae says, his voice a little louder than expected. He turns toward Seunghyun, his hands balling into fists on the table. “Has that ever occurred to you? Ever?” Seunghyun just blinks, too surprised (and drunk) to do anything more than gape like a fish at Youngbae’s outburst. “Of course it hasn’t.” Youngbae finishes, looking down and away.

Seunghyun looks across at Jiyong and Daesung, both of whom were staring at Seunghyun, waiting for him to react. Seunghyun swallows hard and turns back toward a still upset Youngbae. “Then...what do you want?” He asks, his mouth suddenly dry and his mind screaming at him that he doesn’t actually want to know the answer.

“Nothing, Seunghyun. Just, nothing.” Youngbae says without even turning to face him. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

_ He likes men. _

Seunghyun rolls over with a loud groan and covers his head with his pillow. He had gotten back from his night out with Daesung, Jiyong and Youngbae about 4 hours previously, but he had yet to be able to fall asleep. The same few thoughts had been running through his mind since his short argument with Youngbae that had rather effectively killed the mood of the night. They hadn’t really argued, but it was clear that Youngbae was frustrated with him, and being just drunk enough not to be able to think properly he had been unable to try and make things better. The awkward silence after Youngbae had dismissed Seunghyun had lasted approximately one minute before Jiyong had announced how ‘positively  _ exhausted _ ’ he was, and they had all gotten up and left. 

Seunghyun was sure that the others were all fast asleep, and he had tried to convince himself that he should just close his eyes and sleep off the strange mix of guilt and elation that he was feeling. There was no reason for him to be elated about anything, but for some reason whenever he remembered Youngbae admitting that he didn’t like women, he couldn’t help but feel happy.

_ This is why you drink. _ He lets out another pained groan and throws his pillow to the floor; at the rate this night was going, he wouldn’t get to sleep until the sun came up. Seunghyun pulls himself into a sitting position and leans his head back against the headboard. If his thoughts were going to force him to stay awake, he might as well stop trying to sleep and get the thinking over with.

_ Youngbae likes men.  _ There it was again; the thought that wouldn’t leave him alone. Seunghyun didn’t find anything wrong with someone being gay, so that wasn’t really what was bothering him.  _ It’s Youngbae. _ Seunghyun lets out a rather harsh sounding snort at the thought. It was true, though. It wasn’t being gay that was an issue, it was that it was Youngbae. Out of anyone, Seunghyun would most definitely never have guessed that Youngbae would prefer men to women. Women practically threw themselves at him and although Seunghyun had never seen him with a girlfriend or dancing with a girl outside of just during a dance show or something, he had just assumed that Youngbae must find at least  _ some _ of them attractive.

Maybe Seunghyun was so happy about this because it now explained why Youngbae never picked someone up when they went out; he could consider it a mystery solved. He snorts again and shakes his head, crossing his arms over his chest. No, no that wasn’t it. He was always rather secretly happy that Youngbae would leave empty-handed, and knowing why the man did so was definitely very rewarding in itself; but this feeling wasn’t relief, it was almost elation. Seunghyun was basically  _ thrilled _ that his good friend only liked men.

“Maybe it’s because I don’t have to compete against him.” He says to the empty room, but even as he says it he knows that that isn’t the case. He had admitted it to himself just the week before; he hadn’t been very interested in the women he had come into contact with for quite some time now. Eliminating Youngbae as a competitor did nothing to stop his general lack of interest.

He lets out a deep sigh and runs his hands over his face; what exactly was it that was bothering him?  _ Youngbae _ . “Aside from Youngbae.” He says through gritted teeth. He decides that his thinking session isn’t getting him anywhere, but he quells the urge to get up and get another drink.

“Why must I always drink when I’m thinking about Youngbae?” He asks as he reaches over the edge of the bed and grabs his pillow from the floor.  _ Because you don’t  _ want _ to think about him. _ “Augh!” He mutters darkly, leaning his head back against the headboard forcefully. 

He suddenly wishes that it wasn't some ridiculous time of night so that he could call someone and have them ask him all of the questions that he needed to answer. As it was, he was just sitting here thinking in circles. He shuts his eyes tightly and takes a deep breath, only to choke when an image of Youngbae dancing crosses his mind. He forces his eyes to open but now that it’s started he can’t stop the flood of images from parading through his mind: Youngbae in a suit, sitting at his desk, Youngbae shirtless at a dance show, Youngbae dancing, Youngbae, Youngbae,  _ Youngbae. _

“Dammit!” He shouts, trying to break out of the onslaught of mental images. He takes a deep breath to calm himself down and then looks around him. His dark and sparsely furnished room is all that he has to look at. He sighs and reaches for his phone; it might be the middle of the night, but the only way that he could think of to stop his rampant thoughts was to call the object of them. He scrolls through his list of contacts and hesitates for only a short moment over Youngbae’s name before selecting it and pressing ‘send’.

***

It took three full rings for Youngbae to realize that it was most definitely his phone that was ringing and that he should probably answer it because it could be important. His eyes still basically closed and his voice rough from having been woken up rather suddenly, he answers with a brusque; “Hello?”

The other end was silent for a short moment before Seunghyun’s deep voice flowed through the earpiece, “Youngbae, hey.” The older man says, his voice sliding smoothly through the earpiece and causing an involuntary shiver to run down Youngbae’s spine. He sits up straight and opens his eyes wide.

“What’s up, is something the matter?” He asks, suddenly panicked. He checks the time quickly and notes that it’s only almost four in the morning. “Are you OK?” He asks again, his voice slowly regaining its normal smoothness as he becomes more awake and worried.

“Shh, Youngbae, I’m fine, everything’s alright.” Seunghyun says, and Youngbae can hear the humor in the other man’s voice. “Well, as alright as it can be I suppose.” Seunghyun lets out a sigh and Youngbae wonders if the older man is still drunk.

“Oh. Care to explain?” Youngbae asks, sitting up more fully in his bed and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. A deep sigh rumbles over the phone and Youngbae allows himself a small smile at his older friend’s antics; he may be upset with him, but they are still friends.

“No.” Seunghyun says, and Youngbae’s smile becomes just a bit larger at the childish whine present in Seunghyun’s voice.

“Well then I’m not sure how to help you, to be honest.” Youngbae says, his voice dripping with laughter.

“Now you’re making fun of me.” Seunghyun pouts, and Youngbae covers his mouth as quickly as possible to stop his laughter from being audible. “See! You are.” Youngbae controls himself and takes a deep breath.

“No, I’m sorry. Would you consider telling me why you felt the need to call me this late at night?” He asks, closing his eyes and leaning his head back as his face relaxes into a calm smile.

“I can’t stop thinking about you.” Seunghyun says, and Youngbae wasn’t ready for the answer. In fact, he had been expecting Seunghyun to whine a little more and then hang up.

His eyes shoot open and he blinks at his dark surroundings for a few moments before fumbling for the switch on his bedside lamp. “Oh?” he says, trying to force his voice to be calm and not sound as shocked as he was. Admittedly, whenever he had imagined someone saying that to him it was a little more romantic...

“Yes. So I would appreciate it if you would just stop.” Seunghyun says and the peculiar response manages to calm Youngbae down.

“Stop what?” He asks, sitting back again and willing himself calm.  _ Still drunk. _ He thinks, though for some reason the thought doesn’t make him feel better.

“Stop making me think about you.” Seunghyun says, as if it were the most obvious of answers and as if Youngbae actually could control Seunghyun’s thoughts. “Stop walking and dancing and not wanting a girlfriend and breathing...just stop.” Seunghyun says before Youngbae can respond.

Youngbae lets out a soft laugh, unsure of what else to do for a moment. “Ahh, Seunghyun, I don’t think I can stop walking, or breathing.” He says uncertainly after a short pause. Seunghyun sighs audibly and Youngbae continues. “I also can’t stop not liking women and you know I can’t stop dancing.” Seunghyun sighs again and Youngbae smiles.

“I know.” Seunghyun says, and Youngbae decides that Seunghyun most definitely is  _ not _ drunk, and now he’s not sure what to think. “But if you stopped, then I could sleep.” Youngbae lets out an audible breath and closes his eyes.

“Probably not since stopping wouldn’t erase anything.” He says, tipping his head back so that it knocks against the wall behind him.

“Then I guess I will never fall asleep.” Seunghyun mutters, almost too quietly for Youngbae to hear. Seunghyun sighs and there is a brief pause where Youngbae is unsure if he should say something or not. “Since it’s your fault, you should help me fall asleep.” Seunghyun says, his voice still carrying the deep tone that it always held, but with a slightly more excited or hopeful tinge to it.

Youngbae lets out a light and breathy laugh and scrubs his hand over his face tiredly. “Sure, Seunghyun. How would you like me to help.” He says, hoping that this will appease the older man and he will be able to go back to sleep...and forget about the butterflies that had begun to multiply in his stomach from the moment he answered the phone.

The other end is silent for a short while, and Youngbae wonders if Seunghyun has fallen asleep. He’s about to say something when he hears a small cough from the other side. “You should come here.” Seunghyun says quickly, uncertainty written plainly in the quick way in which he speaks. Youngbae makes a small noise but Seunghyun rushes on, “If you were here, then I wouldn’t have to think about you.”

Youngbae is fairly certain that he has stopped breathing. He forces out a breath and shakes his head, opening his eyes and blinking rapidly. “What?” He says, though he heard everything that Seunghyun had said.

“I said...You..You heard me.” Seunghyun growls into the phone, and Youngbae’s mouth falls into an involuntary smile.

“It’s late Seunghyun, and you’re drunk...You should close your eyes and try thinking of something else.” Youngbae crosses his fingers in the hopes that Seunghyun would miss the fact that he was trying to change his mind.

“I’m not  _ that _ drunk and I tried thinking of other things. If it had worked I wouldn’t have called you.” Youngbae stifles a laugh and lets out an exasperated sigh.

“Would you like me to sing to you?” He asks, surprising himself with the offer.

“Yes.” Seunghyun says almost immediately, and Youngbae imagines him closing his eyes and snuggling down into his bed.

“Alright. Close your eyes.”


	3. Nerves

Things were rather suddenly, and inexplicably, back to normal. Youngbae wasn’t sure what was going on; one minute Seunghyun was a mess waiting to happen, and then almost overnight he was back to the way that he had always been. But even though Seunghyun was treating him the way that he always used to, and  going out only on the weekends...Youngbae felt weird. It had been a month since Youngbae had sung Seunghyun to sleep over the phone, a month since he had admitted to preferring a boyfriend over a girlfriend, and he was really...well, confused.  

Seunghyun still made a point of badgering him at least once a week about going out to meet people and he still made a point of trying to beg off. But it didn’t matter. No matter how much it  _ seemed _ like everything was back to the way it had been before Seunghyun’s strange fall into abusive amounts of alcohol consumption, Youngbae wasn’t comfortable anymore.

That was why Youngbae refused to go out to clubs every week. No, it wasn’t because he didn’t want to drink or meet new people; it was because he felt uncomfortable around Seunghyun. Something had shifted in their relationship, at least on Youngbae’s side, and he didn’t know why. All Youngbae knew was that it had started when he felt like he needed Seunghyun to know that he was gay, and became even worse when he sang the man to sleep over the phone.

“Has Jiyong filled out the contract agreement for that new book about the Prince?” Seunghyun asks, his deep voice breaking through Youngbae’s distracted thoughts.

Youngbae blinks for a couple of moments, reminding himself that he’s at his desk, before looking up at Seunghyun. “Um, I don’t...I don’t think so?” He says, and mentally winces at the look of confused concern that crosses Seunghyun’s face.

“You weren’t paying attention, were you?” Seunghyun asks, and Youngbae wishes that Seunghyun were trying not to laugh instead of looking concerned.

“Ahh, no, sorry.” Youngbae says, ducking his head down to avoid Seunghyun’s stare.

Seunghyun lets out a deep sigh and Youngbae can hear him lean back in his chair. “What’s up, Bae?” He asks, and Youngbae  _ actually _ winces at the use of his nickname.

“Ahh, nothing, really. I’m perfectly fine.” He says, trying to hide the slight crack in his higher than normal voice by shuffling through the papers on his desk. “Which document did you want?” He asks.

“Jiyong’s contract agreement for the new book he is writing.” Seunghyun says, and Youngbae makes the mistake of looking up. Seunghyun was staring straight at Youngbae, his arms folded over his chest as he watches. Youngbae takes in the serious expression and feels himself swallow reflexively.

He looks down quickly, trying to make it seem like he was focusing properly. He finds the contract and flips it open. After a quick perusal he nods and looks over at Seunghyun’s desk, but Seunghyun wasn’t there. “Where...?” He mutters quietly, dragging his eyes from the desk and over toward the door slowly.

“Ahh, looks like he has.” Seunghyun says, his voice low and close. Youngbae is only barely able to stop himself from jumping, restricting his reaction to his eyes flying open in shock and his heart thumping painfully in his chest.

“When did you...” Youngbae starts, but he stops as Seunghyun reaches over his shoulder and grabs the contract out of his hands.

“His first deadline is next month,” Seunghyun says rather conversationally as he walks, no  _ struts _ , back to his desk. Youngbae watches him walk away, his eyes glued to the older man’s back, and nods silently in response. Seunghyun stops at his desk and turns around, “Do you think he’ll make it?” The small smile that was tilting up the corners of Seunghyun’s mouth was almost too much for Youngbae to handle.

Youngbae registered, rather dimly, that Seunghyun was trying to be funny; and truthfully if it were just the month before, Youngbae probably would have laughed politely and shaken his head while saying something about how Jiyong marches to his own drum. But not now, not today. No, today his brain is having trouble making all of the correct connections, today he can’t make his mouth work properly or his heart stop trying to pound its way out of his chest. He nods, and Seunghyun tilts his head to the side, clearly on the verge of asking another question, but he’s interrupted by the phone on Youngbae’s desk.

The loud ringing knocks Youngbae out of his reverie, and almost out of his chair when he jumps in surprise. He grabs the receiver, forcing himself to drag his eyes away from the smirk that was making its way onto Seunghyun’s face. He calms himself just enough to answer the phone without his voice cracking.

***

Seunghyun had no idea what had gotten into Youngbae recently, but he couldn’t deny that he was enjoying it. The stuttering and open-mouthed stares were some of his favorite parts, and only sometimes did he feel bad for getting so much enjoyment out of them when there was obviously something going on with Youngbae to make it happen. In the end though, he couldn’t make himself care enough about  _ why _ Youngbae would stare at him, because he was too busy enjoying how flustered he could make the man.

_ That’s awful. _ He sighs at that thought and pushes himself up from where he was leaning against the front of his desk. He turns his gaze from Youngbae talking on the phone and moves to sit behind his desk. He fingers the papers in front of him for a moment before letting out a soft sigh. His drinking had most definitely gotten better, he had forced himself to control the random urge to drink at the thought of Youngbae and had focused it so that he would only go out on the weekends, like normal. It had only been about three weeks of his life that he had been out of control, but it felt like forever, and he was immensely grateful of the fact that he was able to go back to normal.

But the thoughts of Youngbae hadn’t stopped, and somehow, somehow he knew that they wouldn’t. The younger man plagued his mind at all times, which was why he only felt a little bad for enjoying how flustered Youngbae was getting. It was a new thing, too. Youngbae never got flustered unless girls were hitting on him, ever. He was always ridiculously collected and he always smiled brightly and...yeah. Seunghyun drops the pen he had somehow picked up during his musing and tries to focus on his work. He starts re-reading Jiyong’s most recent contract and so is only dimly aware when Youngbae gets off of the phone. 

They work in silence for another half hour before Seunghyun gives up trying to pretend that he cares about the terms and conditions of Jiyong’s contract. He looks up and sees Youngbae idly twirling a pen between his fingers while biting his lip and staring off into space. The sight brings a soft smile to Seunghyun’s face and he decides, rather impulsively, to ask Youngbae to come out with him this Friday night. 

“Hey, Bae?” He says, his voice sounding much lower than his ears were used to. Youngbae jerks slightly and turns toward him. “What are you doing on Friday night?”

Youngbae is silent for a moment, his mind obviously trying to work up an answer while his jaw very visibly works to speak. “Ahh, nothing after I leave the studio.” He says, but it comes out uncertain and a little choppy and Seunghyun thinks that just  _ maybe _ this week Youngbae will say yes.

“Ahh, good, good. I was wondering if you wanted to come out...” He lets the sentence hang and tilts his head to the side just a little. Youngbae opens his mouth and starts to shake his head so Seunghyun cuts in, looking down at his hands. “I just figured that since we haven’t really hung out in a while...and I promise not to try and force you onto every breathing person in the vicinity...” He looks up at the end and Youngbae has a small smile on his face. The younger man lets out a soft chuckle and shakes his head.

“Ah, Seunghyun. Alright, I’ll come out.” Seunghyun allows his face to split into a wide grin. “What time? I don’t get home until after 5:00pm, and I’ll need to eat...” 

Seunghyun just shakes his head. “No, don’t worry. I get home around then also. I’ll come get you and we can grab something to eat before heading out...how does that sound?”  _ Like a date. _ Seunghyun’s mind says, but he very skilfully ignores the sarcastic comment and focuses entirely on Youngbae.

“Alright, I guess that sounds good.” He says before dropping his gaze back to his desk. Youngbae wasn’t quick enough though, as Seunghyun managed to catch a glimpse of his friend’s face turning an interesting shade of pink as he tried to look away.

_ Interesting.  _ He thinks, but he can’t help the smile on his face as he thinks it. Seunghyun felt far more excited for Friday than he had in a long time, and he really wasn’t very certain why.  _ It’s because you’ve got a date with Youngbae. _ His mind suggests, causing him to scowl and look out the window. It wasn’t a date. So what if he was going to take the younger man to dinner and then to a club? That wasn’t a date, it was what friends did...right?

Then why did he feel so giddy at the thought of actually being alone with Youngbae?

~~~~~~~~

Youngbae was fairly certain that it had never taken him this long to get dressed before... _ ever. _ He sighed at his reflection for what must have been the  _ hundredth _ time since he had gotten home an hour previously. 

Seunghyun said that he would be there at 6:15pm, and knowing the older man as he did, Youngbae knew that Seunghyun would be at least three minutes late. This meant that Youngbae had about 10 minutes or so to finish getting ready. This was probably not going to happen. Youngbae sighs again and pulls the black hat he was wearing down over his eyes.

“I am so pathetic.” He moans into the brim before squeezing his eyes shut and squaring his shoulders. He pulls his hat off of his face and holds it at his side while he appraises his look, a white t-shirt and blue jeans, before heading toward the closet; there was no way he was going to go out looking like this. It was at that precise moment that the doorbell rang and he was forced to stop in his tracks.

It rings again and he’s forced to admit that it is possible that Seunghyun was early. He walks toward the buzzer and unlocks the door from there, shouting ‘hello’ as he races back into his room, hoping that he can get back there and change before Seunghyun says anything.

“Do you like pizza?” Youngbae hears Seunghyun ask, causing him to stop in his tracks again. He stares at the interior of his room for a second before turning around and heading toward Seunghyun’s voice.

“What?” He asks as he gets closer to the door. He sees Seunghyun standing there, looking sharp in all-black, and immediately wished he had been able to disappear and change.

“Seungri suggested I eat at this pizza place downtown, but I’ve never been.” Seunghyun says, a smile playing at the corner of his lips as he looks at Youngbae. “So I wanted to know if you wanted pizza for dinner.”

“Ahh,” Youngbae says, momentarily lost for words. He honestly couldn’t picture Seunghyun eating in a pizza place looking the way that he did. “Yeah, I love pizza.” He says, his face almost immediately flushing as he realizes that he will be eating with Seunghyun alone.  _ Why is that such a big deal? You’ve done so multiple times. _ That may be, but there was something about tonight that felt very distinctly...different.

“Great. Let’s go then.” Seunghyun says, turning toward the door with a nod. Youngbae makes a slightly strangled noise as he realizes that he hasn’t changed into anything more suitable since his last look in the mirror. “What?” Seunghyun asks, turning to look at him.

“Ahh, I’m not dressed...” Youngbae stutters out, cursing himself immediately for having lost the ability to speak properly -  _ oh shut up, he looks hot and you’re there wearing jeans and a t-shirt. _ His face goes a shade darker than previously and he keeps his face averted from Seunghyun’s in the hopes that the older man won’t notice.

“You look dressed to me.” Seunghyun says, his voice slightly confused as he turns back around to look at Youngbae. “I’m not sure how you could improve...” He continues and Youngbae looks up, not certain if he should take that as a compliment or an insult. Seunghyun was smiling lightly, and if Youngbae didn’t know any better he would say that he had definitely caught the older man checking him out.

“Alright...let’s go.” Youngbae says, taking a deep breath and deciding to believe that Seunghyun had given him a compliment. He also decides to bury the part of him that is so desperate to know why that makes him so happy. He hears Seunghyun chuckle softly behind him as he slips on a white pair of shoes and that makes him smile as well.  _ God, why am I so giddy? _ He asks himself as he lets them both out of his apartment and locks the door behind them.

“Don’t forget about your hat.” Seunghyun says softly before Youngbae can shut the door all the way. He blinks in confusion at the statement before realizing that he had dropped his hat next to him on the floor while he was putting on his shoes.

He dashes back inside quickly and grabs it, shutting the door just as quickly and turning to face Seunghyun. “Alright, ready!” he says cheerfully, suddenly possessed by an excitement that he doesn’t truly feel. Seunghyun smiles and reaches forward, grabbing the hat out of his loose grip and placing it firmly onto his head.

“Now we’re ready.” Seunghyun says, his hand lingering on the edge of the hat for a moment before he turns and presses the call button for the elevator.

Youngbae is momentarily stunned by the gesture and very suddenly he realizes that he’s probably not going to make it through the night. He’s already flustered and he doesn’t remember ever thinking that Seunghyun was more than just suavely handsome. Now, now his mind was telling him that the older man was smooth and sexy; that the way that Seunghyun spoke was rich and deep and like honey or smooth melted chocolate. It was ridiculous, because he never thought like that, and it was even worse because he was thinking it about  _ Seunghyun _ , his boss, his friend.

Seunghyun touches Youngbae’s back lightly to propel him into and out of the elevator, and Youngbae’s traitorous body has the indecency to shiver both times. He could have avoided the contact, he knows this, if only he hadn’t been so lost in his own swirling thoughts of confusion. He makes it into Seunghyun’s car without needing the door opened for him, and he decides, right then and there, that he’s going to drink that night. Youngbae was going to drink until he was stopped because he feels giddy like someone on their first date, and he just wants to be comfortable around Seunghyun; like he used to be.

Admittedly, getting drunk was probably not the answer, as who knew what could happen or how out of control he could be. Youngbae didn’t care right then though, because if he was drunk, even just a little, maybe then he could look Seunghyun in the eye again. Maybe if he were just a little bit drunk he would be able to talk without stuttering and actually  _ hear _ the words that the older man was saying instead of just hearing the deep and soothing sound of his voice.

***

Seunghyun had never seen Youngbae this drunk before. Actually, to be perfectly honest, he could count on one hand the number of times he had seen Youngbae drink anything at all.Youngbae didn’t start drinking until they got to the club; their dinner at the pizza place had been sufficiently awkward for everyone apparently, which Seunghyun assumed was the reason why Youngbae was drinking vodka drinks like they were water. In retrospect, going out to dinner like that was an awful idea, but they ate, and though the conversation was stilted and repetitive, it had given Seunghyun some insight into what could be bothering Youngbae.

Though he wasn’t normally one to talk about his own attractiveness, the wide-eyed stares and the traveling gaze that had become Youngbae’s recent forte were enough to make Seunghyun feel like he needed to count it as a possibility; and if the flushed face and stuttering speech that had littered their unfortunate dinner that night were anything to go by, then Seunghyun would have to say that Youngbae seemed to find him attractive. The stuttering and the staring were a new phenomenon, however, which just made this whole thing rather more confusing than Seunghyun could ever have imagined. Had Youngbae just suddenly realized that he was attractive? Had the younger man always thought so but had just suddenly started to think about it recently? His lip twitches up in amusement at that but he forces the thoughts from his head as he refocuses on his drunk friend.

Youngbae was out on the dance floor, as per usual, but his movements were more erratic and he was happily dancing with anyone who came close enough to him. This was a first and was part of the reason that Seunghyun was watching so intently, the other part was that he found Youngbae incredibly attractive when he danced.  _ Do you now? _ No, no the other part of why he was watching was because Youngbae was drunk and he wanted to make sure that he would be okay.  _ Of course. _ Seunghyun hated it when his mind patronized him, and it had been doing it a lot lately, especially when Youngbae was concerned.

Seunghyun’s mouth turns down in a slight frown as he watches someone try to dominate Youngbae’s attention. His mouth goes dry and his face falls into a look of disgust as the person moves in front of Youngbae and places their hands on his waist. Rather suddenly, Seunghyun is standing far closer to the dance floor than he remembers being just seconds ago, but the overwhelming urge to rip what he now recognizes as a young man off of Youngbae is powerful and is pushing him to move closer. He clenches his hands into fists and tries to will himself to sit back down before Youngbae notices him, but just then his younger friend turns his head away and their eyes meet.

Seunghyun freezes completely before trying to will the anger out of his features. It takes Youngbae a moment to focus his eyes but once he does, a bright smile crosses his face and he breaks out of the hold the other man has on him and walks a little unsteadily toward Seunghyun.

“You gonna dance?” Youngbae asks, his eyes crinkling up into a smile as if the thought of Seunghyun dancing was the funniest thing in the world to him.

Seunghyun grabs Youngbae by the shoulder to steady him and shakes his head. “I don’t dance.” He responds, his voice deeper than normal and he watches as Youngbae’s eyes move between focused and unfocused for a couple of moments.

“Oh, yeah.” Youngbae says, his mouth falling into a frown before he looks back up at Seunghyun, tilting his head to the side. “I can teach you.” He says, pushing himself closer and causing Seunghyun to take a step back in surprise. “But not out here.” He mutters, and the music's too loud for Seunghyun to really catch what Youngbae had said, but Youngbae is pushing him backward so Seunghyun clues back into what is going on and turns to walk back to the table. “No, no, no.” Youngbae says once they reach the table, and Seunghyun has to bite back the laugh that wants to escape at the pouty expression on the younger man’s face.

“What? I thought you wanted to sit down.” Seunghyun says, his laughter seeping into his voice as he sits down and tries to pull Youngbae into the seat across from him.

“You can’t dance sitting down.” Youngbae says, and he looks so confused that Seunghyun can’t help but to make a small cooing noise in the back of his throat.

“No, you can’t, but I don’t dance so it’s okay.” He says, though he instantly regrets it as Youngbae seems to take offence to that and is visibly upset. “What’s the matter, Bae?” Seunghyun asks, pulling him closer.

“I’m going to teach you how to dance but I can’t do that if you’re sitting.” Youngbae says, his head hanging as he stands in front of Seunghyun. Seunghyun gives Youngbae credit for coherency while being completely drunk, but he shakes his head anyway.

“I can’t dance, and I don’t think that you are in the right state to help me learn anyway.” Seunghyun realizes just a second too late,  _ again,  _  that he’s said the completely wrong thing as now Youngbae looks to be both on the verge of crying as well as ready to prove him wrong.

“Take me home.” Youngbae says, but then shakes his head. “I’m leaving.”

Seunghyun is completely confused by this sudden turn of events, and so he lets go when Youngbae pulls his hand away and starts walking unsteadily toward the exit. Once he realizes his mistake he hurries to catch up and manages to direct Youngbae into his car, which was harder than he had imagined it would be as absolutely everything that Youngbae saw made him forget what he was trying to accomplish.

Once settled into the car, Seunghyun checks that Youngbae is wearing his seatbelt for probably the eighth time before turning the car on and leaving the parking lot. “Where are we going?” Youngbae asks, reaching over to play with the stereo and fiddle with the air conditioning and heating.

“I’m taking you home.” Seunghyun says, slapping Youngbae’s hands off of the controls. Youngbae makes a light growling noise at that and instead moves around in his seat for a couple of moments causing Seunghyun to glance at him multiple times in alarm. “Bae, you gotta sit down properly.” Seunghyun says, suddenly glad that his friend wasn’t a big drinker.

“It’s uncomfortable.” Youngbae whines, pulling at the seat belt before reaching down to take off his shoes.

“No, Bae, leave your shoes on, we’re almost there, I promise.” Seunghyun says, starting to panic. He wasn’t sure what Youngbae was planning to do, but he didn’t want to have to try to gather all of his discarded items while also trying to get him up to his apartment.

“I don’t like sitting.” Youngbae says, leaving his shoes on but untied.

It was a split-second decision that had Seunghyun pulling into his own apartment building’s parking garage. As he was parking the car he imagined that he would probably regret the decision later, but he needed to get Youngbae out of the car soon before he decided that opening the door would be fun.  _ He wouldn’t do that. You just don’t want to leave him. _ Seunghyun scowls slightly at his thoughts as he gets himself out of the car so that he can meet Youngbae on the other side without there being any problems.

“This isn’t my place.” Youngbae says, taking the hand that Seunghyun offered him as he got out of the car.

“No, it’s mine.” Seunghyun mutters, his mind racing for thoughts on what he should do once he gets Youngbae upstairs.

“But you said that you were taking me home.” Youngbae says, pausing in his steps in the middle of the parking garage and causing Seunghyun to falter when he can’t get Youngbae to budge.

“Yes,” Seunghyun says pausing briefly to think up any kind of excuse. “But then I remembered that you wanted to show me how to dance and my living room is much bigger than yours.” He says. Youngbae nods lightly and Seunghyun is now able to make the younger man follow him to the elevator.

“But Seunghyun,” Youngbae says suddenly as the elevator doors close and they’re on their way to the fifth floor. “I don’t need a lot of space to help you dance.” And suddenly Youngbae is too close and Seunghyun has to keep his eyes looking up at the changing numbers over the door, thanking anyone he can think of that he lived on such a low floor when the door opened and he was able to break away from Youngbae’s closeness.

“No, maybe not, but I also wanted some water.” He mutters, knowing that the excuse was lame but hoping that Youngbae would just let it be. Seunghyun fumbles with the lock on his door as Youngbae again enters his personal space, this time from behind.

“I’m thirsty.” Youngbae whispers, wrapping his arms around Seunghyun from behind and resting his head against the taller man’s back. Seunghyun almost drops his keys but catches them and manages to steady his hand just enough to fit the key in.

Seunghyun separates himself from Youngbae upon entering and stands just beyond the entryway, watching as Youngbae slowly toes off his shoes and places them neatly against the wall before straightening Seunghyun’s as well. A small smile finds its way onto Seunghyun’s face as he watches Youngbae and thinks about how cute it is that the younger man is so obsessed with order that even while drunk he pauses to straighten shoes.  _ Cute? _ No, no not cute, interesting, it was interesting.

“I’m going to grab you some water,” Seunghyun says, clearing his throat in an effort to erase his thoughts. “You can wait in the living room if you want.” Youngbae nods but immediately follows Seunghyun to the kitchen. 

“It’s so quiet.” Youngbae says, his voice barely above a whisper as he stands behind Seunghyun at the sink. Seunghyun nods absently as he turns around and presses a glass of water into Youngbae’s hands, urging the younger man to drink.

“Alright,” Seunghyun says, taking in a deep breath to calm himself. “Let’s go into the living room.” Youngbae nods and allows Seunghyun to usher him into the open room.

Seunghyun decides to busy himself by turning on the tv, but it was tuned to a music station before he shut it off, so that’s what it turns on to. The second the music starts to fill the room, Youngbae breaks into a smile. His body starts to move and he puts down his glass of water, and Seunghyun imagines that he has forgotten that it even existed to begin with.

“I like this song.” Youngbae says, closing his eyes and moving as close to the beat as his alcohol saturated brain would allow him. Seunghyun swallows a large gulp of his water and watches, wide-eyed as Youngbae moves. Suddenly, Youngbae starts lifting his shirt up and Seunghyun’s eyes go even wider.

“What are you doing?” He asks, his voice coming out strangled as his eyes follow Youngbae’s hands as they lift the plain white shirt up and eventually over his head.

“It’s hot.” He says simply, only a slight pout present on his face. Seunghyun nods at that, unable to form a coherent sentence as the now shirtless man continues to move his body to the music.

Seunghyun pulls out his cell phone and sends a short ‘SOS’ text to Jiyong; maybe he would know how to handle this situation. The reply came only a few short moments later, though it felt like forever as Seunghyun’s mouth had gone dry and he was fairly certain that Youngbae was going to try and take off his pants next. If it weren’t for the fact that he couldn’t call Jiyong about this in front of Youngbae, Seunghyun would have called Jiyong, if only so that he could yell at his supposed friend for the completely unhelpful response. 

_ If he takes his shirt off, the rest is coming off too. Make sure he doesn’t go outside...it’s kind of chilly out.  _

Seunghyun doesn’t really know how to react to that, so he stares at his phone for a couple of moments before daring to look back up at Youngbae. Luckily, the younger man still had his pants on, unluckily it looked like he was seriously considering taking them off in the near future.

“Youngbae!” He says a little louder than he intended to. The younger man turns toward him with a look of slight surprise on his face before it turns into one of purpose.

Seunghyun blinks in surprise at the sudden change and can only watch as Youngbae slowly closes the distance between them. Seunghyun dimly registers another song coming on as Youngbae grabs him by the waist and pulls him closer.

“You have to move your hips.” He says matter-of-factly, and Seunghyun decides that it’s really not okay that Youngbae is touching him there but he can’t bring himself to stop the man. Youngbae makes a slight noise of complaint and jerks at Seunghyun’s hips. “You’re not moving them.” He says, looking up into Seunghyun’s eyes. “Come here.” and suddenly Youngbae has turned around so that his back is pressed up against Seunghyun’s front. “Move with me.” Youngbae says, reaching back to grab at Seunghyun’s hips as he starts to move.

Seunghyun had often thought, far more often than he would readily admit actually, that the way that Youngbae moved should be illegal. The man had this way of moving his body that just seemed so incredibly unfit for normal people to be allowed to watch. It was hypnotizing and perfect and it never failed to catch Seunghyun’s interest,  _ perfectly normal interest, the kind that friends have for each others bodies _ , Seunghyun almost scowls, but he’s not really able to. Seunghyun never thought that he would ever experience Youngbae’s body moving against his like it was now, but here he is, unable to command his body to move the way that Youngbae was urging him to.

“Move.” Youngbae says, his head leaning back against Seunghyun’s chest as he speaks. Seunghyun almost moans at the sound of Youngbae’s voice, but manages to contain it and his emotions so that he can move the way that Youngbae was directing him.

It was much easier to just follow Youngbae’s lead, no matter how offbeat the younger man was beginning to move. The more lost that Youngbae became in his dancing, the less he seemed to be paying attention to what song was playing.. His hips and legs moved to a beat that apparently only he could hear, and Seunghyun tried to keep up. The simple pressure that Youngbae’s hands were placing on Seunghyun’s hips helped him to keep up with the odd beat, but it made it hard for him to think.

“Put your hands on my waist.” Youngbae says, and the way he says it makes Seunghyun picture the younger man with his eyes closed and his mouth slightly open. “It’s so hot in here.” He says, and Seunghyun almost doesn’t hear it.

Seunghyun allows Youngbae to pull his hands forward and place them on his waist. He is so focused on the feeling of Youngbae moving against him and of his hands against Youngbae’s hard, bare stomach, that he doesn’t really notice that Youngbae’s hands don’t return to his hips. He hadn’t fully registered Youngbae’s utterance about how hot it was, and he probably never would have if it weren’t for the fact that he felt a weird scraping against his front. He looked over Youngbae’s shoulder in surprise to see that the younger man was pulling off his pants.

Suddenly remembering where he was and what he was doing, Seunghyun lets go of Youngbae and backs up as the younger man struggles to pull down his pants. “Youngbae!” He says, his voice cracking as his eyes fly open wide at the sight in front of him.

Youngbae stops with his jeans around his thighs and turns toward Seunghyun, his face showing how completely unaware he was of what he was doing. “What?” He says, and his voice is almost a whine.

Seunghyun collects himself enough to move forward and with far more effort than he could ever have expected it to take, he pulls up Youngbae’s jeans, careful not to touch the younger man’s skin as he does so. “You have to keep your pants on.” Seunghyun says, looking anywhere but at Youngbae as he speaks.

Youngbae makes a small noise of protest and tries to back away, pulling at his pants as he does so. “It’s so hot.” He says on a pout, and Seunghyun’s mouth twitches up into a smile and he can’t help but to look down. He was rewarded with Youngbae looking back up at him, his eyes wide and a pout planted firmly on his mouth.

_ Kissable mouth. _ Seunghyun’s mind whispers, and he doesn’t even try to deny it. He couldn’t really deny it any longer; Youngbae was attractive. More than attractive, actually. Seunghyun couldn’t imagine why he hadn’t allowed himself to think it until now, but his younger friend was almost sinfully hot and all he wanted to do right then was kiss him. But then, then Youngbae’s eyes cross and go out of focus and Seunghyun is reminded that the younger man is very drunk. Seunghyun lets out a sigh and closes his eyes, backing away slightly from Youngbae again to stop himself from doing something that he might regret.

Youngbae makes another low noise in the back of his throat and pulls himself closer, wrapping his arms around Seunghyun’s waist and pressing himself against the taller man. “Seunghyun,” He says, his voice deep and low and Seunghyun swallows reflexively before allowing his arms to wrap around Youngbae.

“What’s up, Bae?” He says, cringing at the husky sound of his voice.

“It’s hot and I’m so tired.” Youngbae says, leaning more heavily into Seunghyun and burying his head in the taller man’s chest.

“Ahh, Bae, of course you are.” Seunghyun says, trying hard to keep his suddenly raging emotions in check. He drags Youngbae along with him, deciding that the best thing to do would be to place Youngbae on his bed. “You can sleep in here.” He says softly, ushering Youngbae into his bedroom and pushing him toward the bed.

Youngbae looks up at him after lying down on the bed. “Aren’t you tired?” He asks, his head tilting in a way that was very reminiscent of Daesung.

A small smile tugs at one corner of Seunghyun’s mouth, “Nah, not yet. You go to sleep first.” Youngbae looks as though he is going to protest for a moment before he just leans back with a slight frown and nods. Seunghyun smiles at him and makes his way out of the room, shutting the door softly behind him.

He makes his way quickly into the living room where he shuts the music off as quickly as possible, picking up Youngbae’s discarded shirt and draping it over the back of a chair as he hurriedly exits the room and heads into the bathroom. Standing over the sink, staring at his reflection in the mirror, Seunghyun takes in his flushed appearance and tries to slow down his breathing. His fingers are gripping the edges of the sink bowl far more tightly than needed as he peers at his reflection like it holds all of the answers that he needs.

“When...?” He asks softly, barely recognizing that he’d actually uttered the word. It was an unneeded question anyway, as even before it had been voiced his mind had been racing to pinpoint all of the moments when he had found Youngbae attractive; all of the moments when Youngbae did something that had made him feel just a little bit different.

The weird need to stay and wait for Youngbae on Friday afternoons was really nothing compared to his strange obsession with finding the younger man a date; even weirder still had been his elation over the fact that Youngbae never seemed to find anyone, and never seemed to try. Of course, now, now Seunghyun knew that it wasn’t just some weird and random feeling that he’d been having. No, Seunghyun now understood exactly why he’d acted the way that he had. He fumbles for a moment with the phone in his pocket before pulling it out and dialing Jiyong’s number.

“Which way did he run off to? I’ll start looking near my apartment.” Jiyong says by way of answering.

“What?” Seunghyun says, confusion making him blink and cock his head to the side as he looks at himself again in the mirror.

“Youngbae; that’s why you’re calling right? He ran off without his clothes on, didn’t he? I told you to pay attention to him.” Jiyong says, though the majority of it sounds like annoyed muttering.

“What? No, he’s in my room...I think...that’s where I left him...” Seunghyun says, suddenly starting to panic so he exits the bathroom quickly and makes his way to his bedroom so that he can quietly open the door and peek inside. “God, yes, he’s still in there.” Seunghyun says, letting out a breath that he hadn’t realized he was holding. He shuts the door quietly and makes his way to the kitchen to sit at the table.

“Oh, well then why are you calling if you’ve got him under control?” Jiyong asks, and if Seunghyun weren’t still trying to calm down he would have sworn that there was a hint of amusement in Jiyong’s voice.

“Ji, he’s so...” Seunghyun suddenly realizes that he’s not sure why he’s called Jiyong. “I don’t know.” He says, dropping his head forward and closing his eyes.

“Yeah, Youngbae can be a bit much when he’s drunk,” Jiyong says, “Trying to take his clothes off and dancing all up in your personal space. He really likes to be touched and held.” Jiyong says this kind of flippantly, like he’s ticking things off of a list, and for some reason that bothers Seunghyun.

“You’ve experienced this before?” He asks, his voice low and smooth.

“Oh yeah, loads of times. We used to go out a lot, but Youngbae gets all embarrassed; which is why he doesn’t really drink much.” Jiyong pauses for a short moment, continuing only after Seunghyun has made a noise similar to a growl at the back of his throat. “How’d you manage to get him drunk?” 

“I didn’t do anything!” Seunghyun says, feeling like he was being accused of some heinous crime. “He just started drinking when we got to the club and didn’t stop until he had been out on the dance floor for quite a while.” Jiyong laughs on the other end and Seunghyun feels like he’s missing something.

“Ahh, yeah. Youngbae mentioned that he was a little nervous about going out tonight.” Jiyong says and Seunghyun remembers the nervous way in which Youngbae had greeted him when he’d come to pick the man up. “Why’d you call, Seunghyun?” Jiyong asks, and Seunghyun realizes that he had been sitting in his thoughts for far longer than necessary.

“Ah, Ji I like him.” He says suddenly, almost without thinking about it.

“Of course you do.” Jiyong says, and Seunghyun just sits there, staring at nothing and unable to make a sound. “Oh honestly,” Jiyong says after a moment of silence. “I’m glad that you’ve figured it out, there is no need to be ashamed of it.” Seunghyun nods, but is still unable to think of anything to say. “Alright, how about this. You’re obviously shocked about this ‘ _ revelation _ ’. You should probably take a shower to calm yourself down, and then make sure that Youngbae is still in your room; he has a tendency to wander when drunk.” Seunghyun makes a soft committal sound and Jiyong continues. “Alright, I’m going to go now, I’ll talk to you later.”

After a short goodbye, Seunghyun hangs up and sets the phone on the table. He rubs his hands over his eyes before standing up and heading toward the bathroom. Jiyong was right, a quick shower to calm him down, and then he could make sure that Youngbae was alright...

His shower was quick and it didn’t quite relieve him of all of the tortuous feelings he was having, but it did calm him slightly. He tiptoes to his room and opens the door, moving inside quietly to go up to Youngbae and be absolutely certain that the younger man was indeed comfortable and alright. He leans over the bed from the side opposite of where Youngbae was lying and nods lightly, allowing himself to back up once convinced that the younger man was comfortably sleeping. He had only made it to standing up straight when Youngbae shifted, a soft moan coming from his mouth. Seunghyun freezes and turns back to the bed.

“Seunghyun,” Youngbae mutters softly, his eyes fluttering open. “Stay.” He says, reaching out for Seunghyun with one arm.

“Ahh, Bae.” Seunghyun says, smiling slightly as he leans forward slightly, “You should be asleep.” Youngbae shakes his head and reaches forward, grabbing Seunghyun’s wrist and tugging gently.

“Stay here.” He whines softly, and Seunghyun can practically  _ feel _ his resolve crumbling. “I’m cold.” He says softly, as Seunghyun slowly lowers himself onto the bed.

This last line makes Seunghyun laugh softly as he shakes his head; Youngbae had managed to kick his jeans off in his sleep. “Alright, I’ll stay.” He says, and Youngbae smiles before pulling Seunghyun all the way down onto the bed. Seunghyun lies still as Youngbae presses against him.

“Goodnight Seunghyun,” He says, his voice muffled by the shirt that Seunghyun had, thankfully, managed to get on before coming in.

“Goodnight, Youngbae,” Seunghyun whispers as he wraps an arm around Youngbae, pulling the shorter man closer.

Seunghyun really didn’t want to think about what the next morning would bring. He really hoped that Youngbae wouldn’t be too embarrassed about their sleeping situation.

~~~~~~~                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~

Youngbae’s head was pounding and he felt constricted, like he was being held in place. He couldn’t feel his right arm and he really wanted to open his eyes but the pounding in his head made him decide that that wasn’t the best idea at the moment. As his body slowly starts to get used to being awake, he realizes that he isn’t wearing all of his clothes. He realizes this at about the same time as he feels something shift next to him. He cracks one eye open and once his vision clears he can make out a shirt.  _ Oh God what did I do?  _ The pain in his head prevents him from opening both eyes to get a better view, so all he can do is lie there in pain and confusion.

Just a few short minutes later the body beneath him shifts again and very slowly and carefully disentangles itself from Youngbae.  _ It’s a man.. _ . his mind whispers, as though that needed to be declared. He keeps his eyes shut tightly as the man repositions him on the bed and covers him with the blanket before starting to walk away. As soon as the man is away from the bed, Youngbae opens his eyes as much as he can.

_ Seunghyun. _ It was Seunghyun. Seunghyun had slept in the same bed as him. Seunghyun had had his arms wrapped around him.  _ And you aren’t wearing your clothing. _ Youngbae really wishes he hadn’t drank so much the night before, so that maybe he could remember  _ something _ that would help to explain the situation he was currently in. As it was, all he could remember was dancing and being hot. Truthfully, those two things were not very good put together as Youngbae is well aware of his tendency to strip when drunk. 

He brings his hands up to cover his face and maybe rub the fuzziness out of his eyes and groans in a mixture of pain and embarrassment. How was he supposed to act around Seunghyun now? What had he done or said? The door opens quietly and Youngbae freezes, spreading his fingers to be able to see through them as Seunghyun backs into the room.

“Oh. You’re awake.” Seunghyun says, his deep voice portraying less surprise and more embarrassment at being caught. Youngbae nods lightly, wincing in pain as he does so.

“Yes, my head doesn’t want me to be comfortable.” Youngbae says, his voice sounding harsh and raspy in his ears.

Seunghyun smiles softly and brings the tray over, setting it down next to Youngbae on the bed. “I got you something for your head and some water and juice...I wasn’t sure what you would want.” Youngbae feels his heart skip at the way that Seunghyun was treating him, but forces himself to calm down and focus; his head hurt too much for him to think about his strange emotions concerning Seunghyun.

“This is fine.” He says, wincing at how rough his voice still sounds.

“You drank quite a lot,” Seunghyun says, smiling, “Your voice is fine.”

Youngbae feels his cheeks flush red at the reassurance and nods, hoping that that will hide the redness on his face. He takes the medicine at Seunghyun’s insistence and closes his eyes afterward. “Why is it so painful?” He asks, his voice starting to sound almost normal to his own ears. He was pouting, but he couldn’t help it; he was in pain and Seunghyun was taking care of him.

Seunghyun smiles before looking down and away from Youngbae as he stands uncomfortably next to the bed. “Ahh, well you drank quite a bit, as I said...so being in pain is inevitable.” Youngbae notes the downturned eyes and bites his lip, trying to decide if he should say something or not. “You should try to go back to sleep, or shower...um, they will both make you feel better.” Seunghyun says, and Youngbae wishes that smiling brightly didn’t hurt his head so much because that was all that he wanted to do; Seunghyun was being too sweet and gentle for words.

“Maybe I will shower when my head doesn’t feel like it’s going to explode if I try to stand up.” Youngbae says, and Seunghyun nods, hesitating for a couple of seconds before heading toward the door.

“I’ll...make you some toast...” He says from the door, his back to Youngbae, before he hurries out of the room and shuts the door behind him.

Youngbae felt an odd mixture of relaxed and terribly uncomfortable. He was still embarrassed, and the way that Seunghyun had acted made him wonder if he had done anything more than just take off his clothes.  _ Oh God you took off your clothes. _ He fights to stop the panic from taking him over at that thought and decides to try and find his phone. Ignoring the pain in his head he leans over the edge of the bed and spies his jeans. He grabs them quickly and searches the pockets before finally finding his phone and dragging it out to check if anyone had tried to contact him.  _ Like Jiyong, maybe I said something to him... _ He knew it was a long-shot, but he was still disappointed when there were no messages on his phone. Youngbae looks up at the door quickly before dialing Jiyong’s number.

“What?” Jiyong asks, his voice just a little groggy sounding.

“Did I wake you?” Youngbae asks, instantly feeling bad for not even checking what time it was.

“No, no I’ve just been writing for a while...” He sighs and Youngbae imagines that Jiyong has just run his fingers through his messy hair. “What’s up?”Jiyong asks, his voice sounding a little clearer.

“Ah, Ji, I’m at Seunghyun’s...” He says quietly so as to avoid being heard.

Jiyong makes a slightly impatient sound on the other end, and Youngbae wonders what’s bothering him. “Yes, yes you are.” He says, and Youngbae’s eyes go wide.

“You knew?” He asks, and Jiyong makes a ‘tutting’ noise, like he’s trying to dismiss Youngbae’s worry.

“Yes, Seunghyun was worried when you started stripping. If you’re going to get drunk with people you’ve never been drunk with before, you should at least warn them; or tape your clothes on.” Youngbae groans, his face coloring in embarrassment as he covers his face with his hand.

“Oh God. I bet it was awful and that’s why he was acting so skittish...” Jiyong snorts, causing Youngbae to end his rambling rant.

“No, that probably has something to do with the fact that he hasn’t had a mostly naked  _ anyone _ in his bed in well over a year, if not longer.” It was Youngbae’s turn to snort at that statement.

“Yeah, like me being in my underwear would bother him any.” Youngbae says, his tone dark with self-deprecation.

“Oh shut up.” Jiyong says, and Youngbae scowls at the phone. “You act like you’re nothing to look at, which is just stupid. Seunghyun spends a good majority of his time  _ staring _ at you, Bae; I’m fairly certain that means that he would enjoy anything you had to offer underneath your clothes. Now get up and shower or something, you probably smell and it will make your head feel better.” Youngbae smiles slightly at Jiyong’s final comment, mutters an agreement and hangs up.

He plays with his phone for a couple of moments before pushing himself up and out of the bed and dropping the phone onto his bunched up jeans on the floor. There was really no need for him to get dressed just to go out to the bathroom, and though it took him a couple of seconds to convince himself of that fact, he eventually made his way to the door and stuck his head outside.

“Seunghyun?” He calls down the short hallway, his head the only part of him sticking out of the doorway for a couple of moments. When he gets no reply he steps out more fully, “Seunghyun?” He calls, just a little louder this time. He hears Seunghyun’s slow and even footsteps making their way toward him so he waits.

“Yeah, Bae?” He asks. He had been looking back at the kitchen as he walked out, his hands playing with a dishtowel, but when he got into the hallway he turned to face Youngbae and his heart almost stopped. 

“I’m gonna take a shower, okay?” Youngbae asks, and Seunghyun is frozen for a moment, his eyes glued to Youngbae’s body. “Seunghyun?” Youngbae asks again, starting to worry that something was wrong.

Seunghyun’s eyes snap up to Youngbae’s face and his face colors before he manages to stutter out, “Yes, that’s good...There’s a towel in the bathroom.” 

Youngbae smiles, feeling his own face heat up as he realizes that Seunghyun had been staring at him. Taking a deep breath and nodding briefly to try and distract from the color on his own cheeks, he hurries into the bathroom, closing the door behind him as quickly as he can without it slamming shut. He takes a couple of moments to calm his breathing before he moves across the room to the shower and turns it on.

“Just need to relax.” He mutters as he tests the water temperature with his hand. He was overreacting.

_ You like him. _ He stops abruptly while trying to get into the shower, stumbling a little as he tries to keep his balance. He couldn’t possibly like Seunghyun as anything more than the good friend he had always been, could he?  _ Why not? _ Seunghyun had always been a good friend, had always been there for him when he needed it...but he had never really thought of him in this way, had he?

_ Of course you have. _ His traitorous mind whispers as he lets the hot water from the shower beat on his pounding head. Alright, so he would admit it, he had always found Seunghyun to be rather charming and suavely handsome...but it had never been a problem before.

Youngbae snaps back to the present long enough to finish showering and steps out, drying himself off with the towel that Seunghyun had mentioned before standing in front of the mirror. He looked tired, but then again he hadn’t really expected to look amazing considering he’d been out the night before. He sighs and shakes his head, smiling softly at the small drops of water that fly from his hair when he does so; yeah, he was tired.

He sighs again and leans forward, “What would he like about you?” He whispers to his reflection.  _ So you  _ do _ like him. _ His mind says, and Youngbae thinks it’s starting to sound a bit snarky, almost as if his mind were Jiyong. Youngbae had been trying not to come right out and admit it to himself, but it looked like he would have to: He likes Seunghyun, a lot.

It had been creeping up on him for quite awhile, he was sure, as he was fairly certain it wasn’t normal to just suddenly one day wake up and be unable to talk or look at someone you had always been friends with. But he couldn’t really pretend any longer. Youngbae liked the way that Seunghyun smiled to himself when they were sitting in the office, and the way that his face made him look far younger than he actually was. Youngbae liked the deep timber of Seunghyun’s voice, and the way the older man’s eyes sparkled when he was joking around; when Youngbae really thought about it, it was actually rather ridiculous that he had never realized how attracted to Seunghyun he was.

It wasn’t just looks that Youngbae liked, either; It was everything. Seunghyun was everything that Youngbae liked in a person, for the most part. They always had great conversations, and Youngbae truly enjoyed being in Seunghyun’s presence. “I’m such an idiot.” Youngbae mutters, before running his hand over his face. “How did I miss this?” He asks.

He backs away from the sink, deciding that it’s probably time for him to change and leave the bathroom, only to stop and stare at the door; he hadn’t brought his clothes in. It shouldn’t matter, as he walked into the bathroom in only his underwear...so why was it such a big deal now?  _ Because you like Seunghyun _ . Youngbae scowls at that thought; he’d liked Seunghyun before he got into the shower too, he just hadn’t admitted it yet.  _ And now you’re embarrassed. _ He was really starting to hate his brain.

Just then, there is a knock on the door. “Youngbae, are you done?” Seunghyun’s calm voice calls from the other side.

Youngbae’s eyes go wide and he quickly adjusts the towel so that it is wrapped tightly around his waist and moves to the door. “Yeah,” He says, opening it slowly. The opening of the door startled Seunghyun who backed up, his eyes wide for a moment before settling on Youngbae’s bare stomach and chest.

“Oh.” Seunghyun says, his face coloring again, causing Youngbae to smile slightly. They stand there in silence for a couple of moments before Seunghyun clears his throat and averts his eyes to the floor. “I, uh, I brought you these,” He says, holding out a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt. “They will probably be too big for you but...” Youngbae smiles and takes them from him.

“Thanks...I’ll just..” He nods, uncertain what to say, but Seunghyun gets the hint and backs away from the bathroom, allowing Youngbae to shut the door. 

Youngbae closes his eyes and wills his heartbeat to slow down. Alright, so wandering out in only a towel was a bit too much for him to handle at the moment. He holds the sweatpants and sweatshirt up to his chest and smiles, before shaking his head. “I’m acting like a little kid.” He mutters before dropping his towel and getting dressed.

***

Seunghyun was starting to think that he should probably have a talk with Youngbae about his lack of clothing. The younger man obviously didn’t see anything wrong with walking around wearing barely anything.  _ You don’t mind. _ He sighs deeply and pours himself a cup of coffee before leaning back against the counter. He didn’t mind so much as he found it really distracting and he had a hard time keeping his eyes to himself. It was embarrassing, really, especially since he had never really had this much trouble with staring with  _ anyone _ before.  _ He’s attractive. _ Though true, the statement running through his mind did not help to alleviate his confusion.

Youngbae was a very attractive man, Seunghyun had always known this, but that didn’t make his staring acceptable. It was just embarrassing, especially since it wasn’t like he could really come up with an acceptable excuse. How do you tell a guy that you only recently found out preferred men that you’ve suddenly realized how awfully attractive he is?  _ Tell him he’s awfully attractive. _ Seunghyun brings his hand up to his head and roughly rakes his fingers through his hair. No, he couldn’t just  _ tell _ Youngbae that, because that would add another layer of uncomfortable uncertainty to their relationship and he really couldn’t afford that at this point; their relationship was already dripping with an uncomfortable edge that Seunghyun wasn’t really fond of.

He turns back to the counter and sees the loaf of bread he had gotten out earlier; before Youngbae was standing in the hallway clad in only his boxers, and definitely before Seunghyun had had to pick his jaw up from the floor outside the bathroom. Remembering his promise of toast, and hearing Youngbae slowly open the door to the bathroom, he pulls out a plate and gets to work making toast. He hears Youngbae enter the kitchen just as the the toast pops up, and he smiles as Youngbae slowly shuffles over to the table to sit down.

“My head feels heavy.” Youngbae mutters, his voice smooth and full, completely unlike it had been that morning when he’d just woken up. Seunghyun can’t decide which he preferred, though his mind kept shouting at him that it was neither of those.  _ Last night, his voice, just a little bit husky... _ it whispers, and he remembers the husky sound of Youngbae’s voice as it had commanded him to move his hips. He shakes his head quickly before he replies.

“Well, at least it doesn’t hurt anymore?” He suggests, and Youngbae gives him a slightly pained smile.

“The shower helped.” He says, and Seunghyun nods while spreading butter and jam onto the pieces of toast. “Sorry I took so long...” Youngbae mutters, and Seunghyun sees the younger man ruffle his still-wet hair out of the corner of his eye.

“Nah, it’s fine...I had to find the toaster, anyway...” Seunghyun says, gesturing at the toaster that had never left his counter since he bought it, and hoping that Youngbae doesn’t pay attention to that fact. Youngbae raises an eyebrow at the statement and Seunghyun knows that he has been caught, but he hopes that the younger man will be kind enough not to mention it.

“You shouldn’t have gone through any trouble on my behalf...” Youngbae says, a smile starting to form on his face as he watches Seunghyun fumble with the plate. 

Seunghyun feels his lip twitch, but he tries to keep his cool. He moves toward the table, stopping next to Youngbae to place the plate in front of him, before leaning his hip against the edge. “No trouble.” He says, even though he knows its been just a little too long for his response to really count.

Youngbae keeps his head turned down toward the plate, and they sit there for a couple of seconds, neither moving. Seunghyun starts to feel anxious, so he gently nudges the plate closer to Youngbae. “Eat.” He mutters, and he could swear that he hears a light chuckle come from Youngbae.

“You sound nervous.” Youngbae says, picking up a piece of toast, as he speaks. “What’s up?” He asks, taking a bite. Seunghyun chews on his bottom lip for a moment, trying to convince himself that he had imagined the forced nonchalance in Youngbae’s voice.

“Why did you drink so much?” He asks, startling himself with how much he really wants to know the answer to the question. Youngbae stills, and Seunghyun can see from out the corner of his eye the way that Youngbae has to force himself to swallow before slowly lowering the last bit of toast back onto the plate.

“Ahh...I was...” Youngbae seems to fumble with his words for a moment, his fingers tapping on the table in front of him. “I was a little tense...and...” Seunghyun cuts him off suddenly with a deep sigh.

“Quit lying to me, Bae.” He says, and he  _ almost _ misses the way that Youngbae’s breath hitches at the nickname. Seunghyun lets out another sigh and pushes himself away from the table, moving to sit in the chair next to Youngbae. “You can tell me the truth.” He mutters, and he knows that his face shows just how upset he is at the thought of Youngbae trying to lie to him.

Youngbae takes in a deep breath, his eyes trained on the surface of the table for a moment before he lifts his head up and meets Seunghyun’s gaze. “I was anxious.” He says softly, as if by making his voice sweeter his words wouldn’t sting. “And you weren’t. And I couldn’t...stop.”

“Why were you anxious?” Seunghyun says, but it comes out just as softly as Youngbae’s words, and he wonders briefly why they are basically whispering to each other. 

Youngbae looks away for a short moment before shrugging his shoulders almost defiantly and looking back up. “Because the thought of being alone with you makes me uncomfortably nervous.” His cheeks go red as he finishes speaking, but he holds Seunghyun’s gaze.

“Why do you take your clothes off when you’re drunk?” Seunghyun asks, and he isn’t entirely sure why he dismisses Youngbae’s answer like that, especially as Youngbae flinches a little at the complete change in subject; but he gets his answer when a slow smile forms on Youngbae’s face.

“Because it was hot.” He says, and Seunghyun can feel his face heating up at the memories that those words evoked. Seunghyun pauses for a moment before being able to answer, realizing that Youngbae had answered his question as if this were the only time he’d ever been drunk.

“Jiyong made it sound like you are always like that when you’re drunk.” Seunghyun says, and he sounds just a little more petulant and even possibly jealous than he would care to admit.

Youngbae tilts his head to the side a little. “You’re blushing,” He says, a small smile on his lips. Seunghyun looks away and Youngbae chuckles lightly. “I don’t drink often because I dance more and get hot and since I’m drunk I have no problem taking off my clothes.” 

Seunghyun didn’t like the way that it sounded like Youngbae was laughing at him. He clears his throat and looks back up to see a smirking Youngbae looking back at him. “Jiyong also said that you usually get rather, ah.....touchy, I think it was.” He manages to say nonchalantly, allowing himself a small smile in victory as Youngbae’s cheeks tinge pink.

“Well, I am usually dancing when I’m drunk, so I guess, yeah.” He mutters, and Seunghyun leans forward.

“Mmm, you really like dancing, don’t you?” He says, and Youngbae stills for a moment, trying to figure out where Seunghyun was going with this. He settles on a quick nod, before going back to just watching Seunghyun. “You’re rather good at it, too. Have you ever considered giving lessons?” He says, and Youngbae is very obviously confused, and tries to say something but is cut off by Seunghyun. “I mean, aside from when you’re drunk and in my living room, that is.”

Youngbae blinks for a couple of seconds, clearly thrown from his normal train of thought. Seunghyun smiles at the blush that he can see working its way up the younger man’s neck and onto his face. Youngbae opens his mouth, to say something, only to close it again and look away for a second. Seunghyun can only imagine what Youngbae is thinking about, but he would hazard a guess that the younger man was slowly trying to piece together what happened the night before.

“I...You’re rather awful at moving your hips.” He says finally, and Seunghyun can’t help but to smile at that.

“Maybe I can just follow a beat better than your drunk self can.” He says, and Youngbae fights not to smile at the comment.

“Unlikely,” He scoffs, and Seunghyun laughs.

“You’re just upset because it’s true. It’s alright, I promise not to tell anyone that you were too drunk to dance properly.” Seunghyun says, and Youngbae crosses his arms over his chest with a huff.

“I’m  _ never _ too drunk to dance properly, you just weren’t paying attention well enough.” Youngbae says, refusing to back down and admit that he might not have danced well. Seunghyun blushes at that statement, remembering the way he’d lost himself in the movement and truly  _ hadn’t _ been paying much attention, but he wasn’t sure he wanted Youngbae to know that.

“Whatever thought keeps you happy, I suppose.” He mutters, raising an eyebrow in the hopes that that action would distract from the coloring on his cheeks. Youngbae frowns a little deeper and shakes his head.

“No, I will have to restore your faith in my dancing skills.” Youngbae says, and now Seunghyun really quirks up an eyebrow in interest.

“While drunk?” He asks, a small and smug smile resting on his face. Youngbae scowls at him briefly before shaking his head.

“No. But I  _ am _ going to teach you how to dance.” He says, and Seunghyun can see the determination in the younger man’s expression, as if that feat were so very important to him and to proving his skills as a dancer.

“I’m sure you could try...” Seunghyun says, starting to feel a little anxious about the prospect of having Youngbae try to teach him.

“Monday...after work, we will go to the studio just up the street.” Youngbae says, before shoving the rest of his toast into his mouth.

Monday was not going to be an easy day for him, Seunghyun decides as he watches Youngbae.


	4. Pink

Seunghyun had never really had a problem with Mondays, unless he was hungover or he had a big meeting...but those were all feelings that he could have on any day. This Monday, however, was proving to be little more than the most awful of hassles.

First, he woke up late after tossing and turning all night, reliving Friday night and the conversation he’d had with Youngbae the next morning. He had managed to get to work on time, but he wasn’t as crisp and casual as usual, his suit jacket was a little wrinkled and he had a small coffee stain on the cuff of his normally clean white shirt. His restless night spent tossing and turning was enough to make his normally upright and commanding air fall flat, as his concentration was shot and he had prominent dark circles under his eyes.

It didn’t help that Youngbae looked as casual and composed as usual, sitting at his desk with just his white shirt and suit vest on, his jacket hanging on the coat stand next to his desk. Seunghyun hadn’t been able to make eye contact as he muttered hello and slipped behind his desk just two minutes away from being late. The day didn’t get any better from there, as Youngbae laid a stack of freshly printed contracts for him to sign on his desk and Seunghyun’s pen rather promptly burst, leaving blue ink stains all over his hand and soaking a number of the contracts. Youngbae had merely smiled and ushered Seunghyun up and out of his chair to go and wash his hand off in the restroom. When Seunghyun came back, his desk was being cleaned by one of the people from maintenance and the ruined contracts had been thrown out.

“You can use  _ my _ pen.” Youngbae says with a smile as he pushes the stack of contracts toward Seunghyun from his seat behind his desk. He held his pen up for Seunghyun, who grabbed it and tried not to dwell on the almost satisfied smirk that he was hoping he had imagined on Youngbae’s face.

Seunghyun hadn’t been able to make eye contact then, either, and even after signing all of the contracts and sitting down behind his now sparklingly clean desk he couldn’t bring himself to look away from the ground or the space just above Youngbae’s left shoulder when the younger man spoke. Most of the problem, he knew, was that he hadn’t gotten enough sleep the night before, thus setting him on edge. However, another large part of the problem had to do with the vivid clarity of his mental images the night before; the feeling of Youngbae’s hips, and Youngbae’s hands and the sound of the younger man’s voice as he spoke in that hushed drunken slur.

When it was time for lunch, Youngbae had announced that he was meeting Jiyong, effectively knocking Seunghyun out of his reverie, and also causing a relatively new feeling to erupt inside his chest like fire: jealousy. He had nodded and wished Youngbae a good lunch without looking up from the calendar he had been staring at for almost 45 minutes, afraid that if he did his jealousy might be apparent. He knew that he shouldn’t be jealous of their relationship, and he wasn’t...he  was more jealous of the fact that Youngbae was eating out with someone who wasn’t him; not that he would have been able to talk to the younger man had they had lunch together.

The rest of the day continued on in a rather similar and unfortunate vein, until Seunghyun looked up at the sound of Youngbae’s desk chair moving. Seunghyun watches in silence as Youngbae backs his chair up, stands up, and proceeds to stretch by raising his hands above his head and leaning back just a little. It was enough, though, as the action caused his shirt to pull taut against his flat stomach while he let out a soft and satisfied groan. Seunghyun hoped rather desperately that Youngbae had forgotten his threat of a dance lesson.

Youngbae hadn’t. 

“Alright, it’s 4:00pm.” Youngbae says, turning what Seunghyun could only describe as ‘expectant’ eyes on him.

“So it is.” Seunghyun says as carefully and nonchalantly as possible, looking briefly at his watch.

“Let’s go.” Youngbae says, and Seunghyun can feel the way that the younger man’s eyes are boring into him; he’d really hoped that Youngbae would forget.

“Ahh, Bae...” He whines, but this seems to just make Youngbae more determined.

“Come on, we need to get there soon so that there isn’t anyone there.” Seunghyun considers taking far too long to get ready to leave, but then he feels bad about it; he kind of also really wants to know what Youngbae plans to do.

“Alright, alright.” He mutters as he sighs and pushes himself up from his seat. He does allow himself to take his time shrugging his suit jacket back on, noticing covertly as Youngbae watches him, his foot tapping in annoyance and probably impatience. 

They leave the office together, and Seunghyun waves to the secretary who he is fairly certain just winked at him. Everything is silent as they enter the elevator and Seunghyun is a little worried that it will continue to be that way, but tries to relax and let the silence soothe him instead of ruffle him.

Youngbae fiddled with a keyring for most of the walk to the dance studio, and Seunghyun wished that the younger man would stop as he really shouldn’t find fingers so attractive. Of course, he couldn’t tell Youngbae to stop playing with the keys, letting them flip around his, for lack of a better word, ‘thick’ fingers. The way that they very nimbly played with each key while his thumb was hooked through the ring was almost torturous in it’s strange attractiveness; Seunghyun kind of wishes he’d just called in sick.

They reach the studio, still in silence, and make their way inside. Youngbae smiles and politely greets the few people that they run into as they walk through the studio, and Seunghyun wonders where he is being taken. They walk through what Seunghyun decides must be the main dance studio, with its wall of mirrors and ballet bar, and continue to the other side where there is an open door that leads into a small hallway. The small hallway, Seunghyun decides, must be where the individual practice rooms that he had heard Youngbae mention to Jiyong a couple of times when they had all been out together. He was proven right when just a couple of moments later they stop in front of a door near the end of the hall and Youngbae stops fiddling with the keys long enough to shove one into the lock and open the door.

Youngbae ushers Seunghyun inside and strips off his suit jacket, motioning for Seunghyun to do the same with his own. Seunghyun was hesitant to do so, realizing suddenly that he didn’t have anything to change into and maybe if he mentioned that Youngbae would let him go home...

Seunghyun wasn’t so lucky, as when he hesitated in taking off his jacket Youngbae came up and pulled it off for him, bringing it over to a coat rack in the far corner of the room, opposite the door. 

“Why is the coat rack across the room?” Seunghyun asks, deciding that breaking the silence now would make him more comfortable. Youngbae cracks a mischievous smile before answering.

“So that unwilling participants have to cross through the room twice before being able to leave.” He says with a rather sly wink. Seunghyun wasn’t used to this side of Youngbae, this mischievous and almost flirty side. He nods, unable to really come up with a response to the rather suggestive if only jokingly said words.

“Point taken.” Seunghyun says, allowing himself to smile. There was no point in fighting it now, Youngbae was ready to teach him to dance, and while he couldn’t fathom why it was so important to the younger man, he also couldn’t deny that he wanted badly to do as the other wished.

Youngbae smiles brightly and moves to the side of the room with the stereo. “Just simple music, and simple movements.” He says, looking up at Seunghyun through the mirror in front of him.

Seunghyun nods, suddenly far more nervous than previously as he waits for the music to start. It's a simple beat, just as Youngbae had promised, but the moment it starts playing is the moment that Youngbae starts moving. The movements are simple, also just like Youngbae had promised, but Youngbae is looking at him through the mirror and Seunghyun isn’t certain he can breathe any longer.

“Come closer.” Youngbae says, tilting his head to the side a little and backing away from the radio, his hips moving slowly in a tight circle that looks more like light hip thrusts than anything else. Seunghyun nods a little absently and walks forward, his eyes trained on the younger man’s hips as he moves.

When Seunghyun has moved close enough, Youngbae moves around behind him and gestures toward the mirror. Seunghyun looks up and watches as Youngbae’s hands come up from behind to latch onto his hips.

“Rotate...slowly.” Youngbae whispers, and Seunghyun wonders if Youngbae knows what kind of power his voice holds.

Seunghyun nods, completely unable to respond in any other way as he feels Youngbae's fingers curl into the fabric of his suit pants. 

"Can you hear the beat? That slow continuous rhythm?" Youngbae asks, and Seunghyun closes his eyes; his mind unable to handle the sensory overload that was Youngbae. "Can you?" Youngbae asks again and Seunghyun manages to nod, forcing his ears to tune out the sound of Youngbae's breathing and tune into the music.

It was a simple and comforting beat; there were no words and it was almost relaxing. Seunghyun let the music wash over him as he tried to block out the gentle pressure Youngbae was applying to his hips. If there was one thing that Seunghyun absolutely enjoyed, it was music. The beat calmed him while the gentle directions from Youngbae's hands and voice gave him a slight rush.

The song was of indeterminate length, and Seunghyun wasn't sure how long they had been dancing or how many times Youngbae corrected him and changed their positions. But rather suddenly the music was done and the only sounds that could be heard were their panting breaths. Youngbae didn't back away when the music ended, and with the sudden disappearance of his distraction, Seunghyun wasn't able to block out the warmth emanating from Youngbae's hands or the sound of Youngbae's breathing from behind him.

"The song is over." Seunghyun chokes out, his eyes turned down and away from the mirror in front of him.

"Mm" Youngbae hums, and Seunghyun wishes suddenly that he couldn't feel Youngbae's eyes on him through the mirror and that Youngbae were just a little taller so that he could feel the younger man's breath on the back of his neck.

Seunghyun made a slight movement as if to move away, but Youngbae stopped him with a slight tightening of his hands at Seunghyun's hips. Seunghyun looked up into the mirror, but he couldn't see Youngbae. Very slowly, Seunghyun was turned around in Youngbae's grasp. It was an agonizingly slow movement, made more halting by Seunghyun's confusion over the situation. Once facing Youngbae, he couldn't take his eyes off of the shorter man. 

Youngbae was staring up at him, too close for it to be a comfortable position for his head to be in. His face was flushed but there was no sweat, while Seunghyun was fairly certain that he had at least a sheen of sweat covering his face. Seunghyun was so focused on studying Youngbae's face up close that he didn't notice when one of Youngbae's hands left his waist and traveled slowly up toward his 

Time seemed to have stopped while Seunghyun was staring into Youngbae's handsome face, but he was jarred back to his senses when Youngbae's fingers dragged slowly down his cheek and around to the back of his neck. Youngbae's eyes flicked up to Seunghyun's from where they had been busy staring at Seunghyun's mouth. There was a short pause where they just looked at each other, before Youngbae pulled Seunghyun's head down to his and pressed a short kiss to Seunghyun's lips. Youngbae pulled back just a bit and Seunghyun felt that that was an awful shame so he crashed his lips back against the younger man's and brought his hands up to Youngbae's back, pulling the shorter man closer to him and effectively deepening the suddenly frenzied and hungry kiss. 

Seunghyun didn't know what it was, but he couldn't bring himself to let go. He wanted to continue holding onto Youngbae, he wanted to feel Youngbae moving against him; feel the heat of Youngbae's body and the melodic sound of Youngbae's panted breaths. The kiss ended far too soon for Seunghyun, but he couldn't let go of Youngbae. He pressed his forehead to the shorter man's and let his eyes close so that he didn't get caught up in the way that Youngbae's teeth dragged his lower lip into his mouth in an almost self-conscious way.

"You're an awful dancer." Youngbae whispers after a couple moments of silence, and Seunghyun lets out a deep chuckle and shakes his head lightly; his forehead rubbing against Youngbae's as he does so. 

"You call yourself an instructor?" Seunghyun says at only slightly above a whisper. "Dragging me in here just to seduce me..." he adds on a mutter and Youngbae rears his head back. Seunghyun allows himself a slow and indulgent smile before he pulls Youngbae's head back in for another quick kiss. "I'm okay with that." He says and Youngbae scoffs, turning his head away.

"If I'd planned on seducing you I wouldn't have needed to force you to try to dance with me." He says, and Seunghyun laughs.

"Is everything I say going to be turned into a challenge?" He mutters and Youngbae grins, turning his head back to face Seunghyun, a mischievous look on his face. 

"Do you want it to be?" He asks, and Seunghyun wonders if that could be considered a confession.

"Only if you really want to try...though I have to admit that you wouldn't have to try hard." Seunghyun says, hoping that Youngbae will understand.

“No?” Youngbae whispers before smiling and pulling away. Seunghyun watches as Youngbae walks over to the stereo, shutting it off before moving over to the coat rack. “Come on,” He says, looking up at Seunghyun as he grabs their suit jackets off of the rack. “We should go, it will be getting busy here soon.” Seunghyun nods, a small smile on his face as he takes his jacket from Youngbae and follows the shorter man out the door.

He’s not quite certain what’s just happened, and is even less certain when they arrive at the parking lot and get into their separate cars to go to their separate houses; but Seunghyun now knows that he rather irrevocably likes Youngbae, and he’s going to find a way to let the younger man know.

~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~

Youngbae really wished, as he toed off his shoes in the entryway of his house and slid his jacket off to hang in the nearby closet, that he had not given in and kissed Seunghyun like that. Not because he regretted kissing Seunghyun, because he was fairly certain that he would  _ never _ regret that; no, it was because he was alone right at this moment. Though he hadn’t really planned this whole thing out beforehand, he was fairly certain that if he had, he would have expected Seunghyun to come home with him; or at the very least acknowledge a willingness to do so.

He isn’t sure how he could have done the whole thing differently. When he really thought about it, he’d flirted and acted up the seduction, just like Jiyong always suggested and just exactly the way that he’d practiced while trying to perfect his stage persona. It worked, he couldn’t deny that it had worked as Seunghyun had even returned his kiss...but then why was he alone, with no answers and only a faint hint that the older man might be willing for more.

Youngbae hits the door to the kitchen a little harder than intended as he goes to pass through it, causing it to bounce harshly against the wall as it flies open. He lets out a sigh and leans back against the counter; where had he gone wrong? He’d teased about seducing and Seunghyun had seemed game...admittedly, he hadn’t really meant to seduce, but he hadn’t been able to help himself; he hadn’t even been trying. When Seunghyun closed his eyes and let the music take over, Youngbae had had to fight to keep his hands from wandering up from the older man’s slim hips. He closes his eyes tightly and pinches the bridge of his nose; Seunghyun seemed interested, willing even. He needed to stop thinking negatively about this situation and try to figure out how to get Seunghyun here, or at least near him again.

“Maybe...” He mutters, turning toward the counter and pulling out his cell phone. He flips it around in his fingers for a couple of moments before shaking his head roughly and pushing himself away from the counter. No, he wasn’t going to call. Instead, he would take Seunghyun up on that challenge that he had heard in the older man’s voice. He was going to make Seunghyun want him.

Youngbae lets out a short breath of a laugh, before shaking his head. That probably wasn’t going to work out, but he would try; he needed to get closer to Seunghyun, especially now that he was sure that the older man was at least attracted to him.

The next morning, as he sat behind his desk waiting for Seunghyun to come into work, he considered just telling the older man that he had feelings for him. Those thoughts lept out the window when Seunghyun walked in looking completely refreshed and with a killer lopsided smile on his face. Youngbae decided that he just wasn’t direct enough for that type of a confession anyway, so he went for small things.

Youngbae wiled away the week putting his rather scant plan to work. He would let Seunghyun catch him staring, or ‘accidentally’ brush his hand against Seunghyun’s hand or arm as they spoke. He tried adding double entendres into his speech, or at least forcing everything to sound that way, but he decided by Wednesday that that wasn’t worth the extra thinking time it necessitated. By Friday, Youngbae was starting to despair of his plan ever actually working.as it seemed that Seunghyun was staying fairly unaffected by his increasingly less innocuous advances.

“It’s 2:00pm.” Seunghyun says suddenly, breaking the silence that had lingered over the office for the past few hours. Youngbae looks up from the contract that he was reading and cocks his head to the side, his eyes a little blurry as they try to gain focus.

“Oh?” He mumbles, trying to figure out why that time was so important. Seunghyun raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms over his chest.

“Yes, don’t you have to go?” He asks, and Youngbae remembers that it was Friday and that he always left the office at 2:00 on Fridays.

“Ah,” He says, and suddenly he is back on the right track and decides to play a little bit. “Trying to get rid of me?” He asks, and he smiles inwardly at the sudden scowl on Seunghyun’s face.

“No, you’re just normally very...punctual.” He mutters, his face starting to flush as he speaks.

“Hmm, yes. And we wouldn’t want me being late to the dance studio, would we? All of those eager learners.” Youngbae smiles as he stands up from his desk, collecting his jacket from the hanger beside him. “I should probably go, you’re right. We got four new dancers this week, and tonight is private lessons.” The deepening scowl on Seunghyun’s face was enough to stop Youngbae from revealing the fact that he never gave private lessons, he only did large group choreography. He had made it as far as the door before Seunghyun finally spoke up. 

“Don’t have too much fun.” He says, and it’s tight and even and the possible meaning behind what he says makes Youngbae pause briefly at the doorway, wondering if maybe the older man actually thinks that he just goes around intent on seducing everyone he meets, 

Youngbae forces himself to nod and hopes that there is a smirk on his face instead of the grimace that it feels like and throws a look over his shoulder. “How could I? You won’t be there to entertain me.” He says, and is delighted to see the flash of uncertainty cross Seunghyun’s face as he tries to come up with a response.

“Don’t stay late today.” Is all that Seunghyun says in response, and Youngbae tilts his head a little, hoping for more of an explanation. Seunghyun doesn’t give one however, so Youngbae is forced to leave the office wondering just what Seunghyun might be planning.

~~~~~~     

It had been a stupid and sudden compulsion that had forced his tongue earlier as Youngbae was leaving the office. He had hoped in vain all day, and if he were being honest he would have to admit to having been hoping all week, that Youngbae wouldn't go to the dance studio that night. He wasn't entirely certain why, another lie, but he really couldn't fathom the thought of having Youngbae back in the dance studio; possibly having his hands or gaze on another, more skilled at dancing, body.

Seunghyun lets out a rough breath and drags a hand over his face before letting his gaze trail up to the clock on the wall; 3:04.  _ Damn _ . Two more hours until Youngbae would trail out of the dance studio, his suit shoved into a bag and his steps languid and certain. Seunghyun lets out another ragged breath and decides that he should probably try to do some type of work now that his biggest distraction had left him alone in the office. 

He looks at the small calendar on his desk and decides that maybe he should contact Jiyong about the progress of his latest book.  _ And totally not about Youngbae at all. _ His mind whispers, causing him to make a face. He was just going to inquire into the progress of the book, it's due date was coming up after all.

The phone rings three times before it's answered. "What?" Jiyong practically snarls into the receiver. Seunghyun is shocked for a moment before a slow smile spreads across his face.

"I forgot that your sister was in town, Ji, how is that going?" He says and Jiyong sighs deeply, the sound of a door shutting with a loud snap echoing over the line.

"Oh, it's you." Jiyong says a little morosely.

"Who were you expecting?" Seunghyun asks, wondering if maybe Daesung and Jiyong had gotten into a fight or something.

"Youngbae...but it's too early for him to be calling." Jiyong says, sounding even more upset than previously. 

Seunghyun wants to ask if Jiyong is angry with Youngbae for some reason, suddenly feeling anxious over the possibility; but he decides against it. He knew very well that Jiyong and Youngbae had a rather unconventional friendship.

"Ahh, right." Seunghyun says, realizing he'd been sitting silent for a couple of moments too long. If he'd known Jiyong as well as Youngbae did, then he would probably have been able to picture the sly smile that had crossed the younger man's face during the silence. But he didn't know Jiyong near as well, so he wasn't aware of the look that was on Jiyong's face as he cleared his throat and tried to get down to business. "I was just looking at the calendar. It seems that your first draft date is coming up."

"Mm yes, it is." Jiyong says idly and Seunghyun starts fiddling with one of the pens on his desk as he listens. "You'll probably have to postpone that." 

Seunghyun nods, having expected the answer. "Your fans will be disappointed if the release date is pushed up again."

"If you want an unfinished draft, then I can hand it in on time. But if you want it to be good, you'll wait." Jiyong replies, and Seunghyun nods again as he holds in the sigh that was practically begging to fall from his lips; Jiyong's unfinished drafts were better than most of his other clients' third or fourth drafts.

"Well, it was worth the try." Seunghyun says on an exhale and Jiyong laughs.

"You didn't even  _ pretend _ to try Mr. Choi. Not even close." Jiyong sounded playful and Seunghyun allows himself a soft chuckle, happy for this distraction.

"Maybe you're right. But really, Ji, how are things with your sister visiting?" Seunghyun asks, deciding that it was perfectly ok for this conversation to become a personal one.

Jiyong sighs so hard that Seunghyun can't help but to imagine that the younger man was rolling his eyes as well. "She's being an absolute  _ nightmare _ , Seunghyun. Practically tripping over herself whenever Daesung so much as  _ looks _ at her." Jiyong makes a disgusted sound here and Seunghyun laughs again.

"Well, Daesung has that effect on people. Isn't your sister married? I don’t see the problem...” Seunghyun says, leaning back in his chair and making himself comfortable.

Jiyong sighs rather dramatically into the phone, and Seunghyun is reminded why he doesn’t normally have meaningful conversations with the man. “Of course you don’t understand.” Jiyong says, and Seunghyun wonders if he should be offended by that statement. “You can’t even properly follow up on Youngbae basically handing himself to you. That was rather dense of you, don’t you think?” And there it was, the other, much larger reason why Seunghyun tended to avoid meaningful conversations with Jiyong; they ended in harassment.

He drags a hand down his face and sighs. “What did you want me to do, Jiyong? Follow him back to his house and refuse to leave? Force him to come to mine?” Jiyong makes a noncommittal noise and Seunghyun forges on. “Besides, we had work the next day...it just wouldn’t have been wise.”

“And let me guess, now that it’s Friday, you plan to make your move?” Seunghyun makes an annoyed face, glad that Jiyong can’t see him through the phone. “It’s unlikely to work as he’s probably already at the dance studio and since you didn’t follow him there or do anything to make him think you wanted him, he will probably go home afterward.”

Seunghyun scowls throughout the rest of Jiyong’s rant and then takes a breath. “I told him not to stay late.” Seunghyun says, realizing rather belatedly that it sounded rather weak saying it again.

Jiyong laughs outright. “Your lucky that Youngbae is the type to follow those types of...hints. What do you plan on doing?” 

“I have no clue.” Seunghyun says, his attention drifting to the window and over to the door to the dance studio. It was almost 4:00 so he decides, as Jiyong starts rattling off a list of his failings in the dating area, to keep an eye on the door just in case Youngbae leaves early.

“You aren’t even listening to me. What on earth could be more important than me telling you how to get Youngbae? I’m practically a God-send to you in this situation! Ugh!” Jiyong rambles as Seunghyun tunes back into the conversation. Seunghyun can hear what sounds like a door opening in the background of the call and then Jiyong sighs. “Damn, hiding time is over. Alright, I wish you luck on your little adventure; even though you didn’t listen to a word of my advice.” Jiyong sighs and Seunghyun suppresses a laugh.

“Get back to your boyfriend and sister, Ji, they need your attention more than I do.” 

“Yeah, right, they would probably tell me to go back to helping you if I told them what I was doing. But I should save Daesung, I think Sis is asking him about his parents.” Jiyong lets out another sigh. “You be good tonight Mr. Choi.” Jiyong ends with mock authority and Seunghyun finds himself chuckling as he ends the call and returns the phone to his desk.

It’s as he watches Youngbae walk slowly out of the dance studio and glance quickly up at the office window less than twenty minutes later that Seunghyun suddenly wishes he had paid attention to what Jiyong had been telling him. He grabs his phone from his desk and quickly calls Youngbae.

“I was thinking Chinese for dinner.” He says as calmly as he can muster. Youngbae makes a shaky noise of agreement, which bolsters Seunghyun’s confidence. “I’ll be down in a minute.” he says, ending the call and grabbing his suit jacket. 

He checks for his keys and his wallet, then grabs up his phone and walks out of the office. He didn’t need Jiyong to help him seduce Youngbae, though he probably needed Jiyong’s help to  _ keep _ Youngbae. Seunghyun sighs as he rides the elevator down to the first floor.  _ Everything will work out _ , he reminds himself,  _ you obviously both at least enjoy each other’s company _ . The thought didn’t make him feel any better.

In the end, he should have known that the night was going to be a vague disaster, as it was practically their lot in life to never have any night end the way any normal couple’s would. Seunghyun stares down at his ruined pants and stained white shirt, and wonders if there was any way that he could just end his suffering right then.

“Oh God Seunghyun, I’m so, I’m just sorry.” Youngbae says, pacing back and forth in front of Seunghyun who was sitting on a bench a little ways away from the restaurant they’d eaten at. Seunghyun would have been fine with not taking anything to-go, and so, it had seemed, would Youngbae. Unfortunately for them both, and for Seunghyun’s pants, Youngbae can’t say no and when the server returned, after taking their not-quite-empty plates out back, with a to-go container...Youngbae hadn’t been able to refuse.

“It’s really alright, Bae, it really is.” Seunghyun says, and he means it. He’s more sorry about the fact that he had been trying to kiss the ridiculously nervous boy when they had been interrupted by Youngbae dropping the container. Seunghyun isn’t even certain how the food and sauces had managed to soak not only his shirt but his pants, but it doesn’t really matter, the damage was done.

Somehow, miraculously, they both end up at Seunghyun’s apartment. It was definitely ‘miraculous’ as Youngbae had even driven his own car over behind Seunghyun, so there had been absolutely no force in the matter. Youngbae was swirling water in a wine glass when Seunghyun came out of his room after dressing.

“You can’t possibly be drunk.” Seunghyun says, his voice startling Youngbae out of his silent contemplation.

“No. No, I was just thinking.” And suddenly, suddenly Youngbae has turned and is fully looking at Seunghyun and Seunghyun really and truly doesn’t know what to do about that.

“What were you thinking about?” Seunghyun asks, uncertain if that was what Youngbae wanted him to do, or if that had just been an offhand comment that was meant to be ignored.

Youngbae takes a deep breath and places the glass down on the counter. “It’s not easy getting someone to pay attention to you, especially when for quite a long time, you hadn’t ever considered getting them to pay attention to you in that way.”

Seunghyun thinks that that’s a rather roundabout way of saying ‘I never liked you before but now I guess I do’ but he takes it anyway. “Yeah, well sometimes it’s hard to admit to yourself that one of your closest friends is probably the most attractive person you will ever have the chance of meeting.” Seunghyun responds, and wishes that he could have thought of an eloquent way of saying that he is still finding it hard to deal with how much he truly wants to  _ be _ with Youngbae...forever.

“Yeah, that’s hard too.” Youngbae says, a small smile touching his lips. They’re silent for a moment as Youngbae purses his lips slightly and squints up at Seunghyun. Youngbae lets out a breath through his nose and smiles again; obviously amused by the look of desperation and anxiety that Seunghyun could feel playing around on his own face. “Are you going to kiss me? Or am I going to sit here and will you to all night?” Seunghyun blinks once in surprise and a slight amount of confusion, before reaching forward and touching Youngbae’s cheek.

“I think I’m going to kiss you.” Seunghyun says, and Youngbae nods, his face completely serious as he stares up into Seunghyun’s eyes.

“Good.” He says, and Seunghyun covers the younger boy’s smile with his lips for a brief moment before pulling back.

“You’re definitely not drunk, right?” He asks, and he’s only kind of joking. Youngbae laughs and shakes his head before grabbing Seunghyun’s face and pulling it back toward him.

“Kiss me again, and don’t stop until I tell you to.” He breathes, and Seunghyun is more than willing to comply after that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“He’s not answering his phone.” Jiyong says, holding his cellphone out for Daesung to see. Daesung raises an eyebrow and shrugs.

“Maybe he fainted because he saw that it was you calling.” Daesung replies, hiding a smile as Jiyong scowls and stamps his foot.

“Daesung! Don’t write this off! He  _ always  _ answers when I call. Always!” Daesung nods slightly before shrugging again.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Ji... maybe he’s in the shower?” Jiyong shoots Daesung a rather withering glare before turning his attention back to his phone and presumably dialing again.

Daesung sighs and shakes his head. It was useless to try and stop Jiyong, even though Youngbae was probably not answering because he was busy with  _ other _ things. Jiyong was quite aware of that fact too, which was probably why he was trying so hard to get into contact with Youngbae when all he really wanted to know was whether he should wear a blue or pink vest out to dinner that night.

“For goodness sake Youngbae! This is important! Why aren’t you picking up your phone!?” Jiyong yells from the living room. Daesung sighs, it was probably going to be a long day.

***

It had been a week and Youngbae wasn’t certain if Seunghyun knew just how much he actually liked him. Their vague confessions had been just that; vague, and Youngbae wanted things to be certain, definite, solid. He hated wavering and he hated not having a direct answer or absolute knowledge. All he wanted was to know if he and Seunghyun could be considered exclusively dating or if he should just start looking for a new job because he wasn’t certain he could handle being in the same office as Seunghyun if this was just casual.

Though, if they  _ were _ dating then he should probably find another job anyway, right? It would be odd to share an office with his boyfriend...wouldn’t it?  _ Seunghyun basically owns this place, his sister is the other owner... _ It  _ was _ a family business after all...they wouldn’t be against it... Youngbae shakes his head with a deep sigh and fights the urge to run his fingers through his hair. They were meeting Daesung and Jiyong for dinner that night, and he was hiding in one of the private dance rooms at the studio. He could hear his phone ringing but he couldn’t even begin to guess where it was, and he was far too focused in his own strange misery to be able to look for it.

_ It’s probably Jiyong. _ His mind whispers, and he tries to block the thought because that was almost impossible and Jiyong knows that he doesn’t answer his phone when he’s at the studio. Then again, Jiyong most probably has no idea what day it is, let alone what time, so it very well could be Jiyong... Youngbae sighs in frustration again and leans his head back against the mirrored wall he had backed himself up against. He was not in the mood to fight through a conversation with Jiyong, and he most certainly wasn’t ready to have dinner with everyone tonight.

It wasn’t like he wanted to move in with Seunghyun immediately or anything...he just wanted to know if he needed to make space in the cabinet over the sink for Seunghyun’s razor or maybe clear a space for the older man’s toothbrush. Did he need to create a spot for Seunghyun’s shoes? Maybe an area in one of his drawers for a small sampling of Seunghyun’s clothing? For that matter, what did  _ he  _ need to prepare? Should he prepare a small bag of clothing to bring over to Seunghyun’s and leave? What about toiletries? Is he overthinking this whole thing? He knocks his head back against the mirror and then pushes away from it and stands up. His phone was still going off, it was probably Jiyong, and if he didn’t answer then lord only knows how Jiyong would react.

He roots through his bag and finds his phone. It had stopped ringing by then, and he notes that he had 17 missed calls. “definitely Jiyong,” he sighs as he scrolls through his messages. The phone starts to ring just as he was considering checking his voicemail, and he smiles before answering.

“Hello?” He says. Jiyong makes a frustrated scream/sigh sound on the other end, and Youngbae has to cover his mouth to stop himself from laughing.

“ _ Now _ you pick up the phone? You’re finally  _ free enough _ to speak with me?” Jiyong says, and it sounds a little nasty and Jiyong is definitely upset. Youngbae sighs, a smile still hanging around his lips.

“Yes, Ji,  _ now _ I am perfectly free and able to devote my attention to you exclusively.” Jiyong lets out what can only be described as a ‘world weary’ sigh, and Youngbae is fairly certain that he is rolling his eyes as well.

“I need to know,” Jiyong starts, and Youngbae sits back against the wall and closes his eyes. “What I should wear tonight.”

Youngbae wants to be surprised that Jiyong tried so hard to get in touch with him just to ask him about clothing, but he isn’t and he probably never would be. “What are the choices?” He asks on an exhale, and he can practically  _ feel _ Jiyong bristle at his tone.

“This is important, Youngbae! What I wear has to reflect the mood of the occasion! I can’t just wear  _ anything _ .” Jiyong says, and he’s trying to sound offended, but Youngbae thinks he just sounds like a whiny child.

“Choices...?” He prompts and Jiyong takes in a deep breath and lets it out on a sigh, obviously wanting to continue with his reprimanding rant.

“Should I be semi formal or completely casual?” Jiyong asks and Youngbae scrunches his nose.

“Why is it only those two options?” Youngbae asks, and Jiyong sighs, probably only just stopping himself from stamping his foot in frustration.

“Because either it’s an important dinner or it’s just between  _ friends _ .” Jiyong practically hisses the end, and Youngbae knows that that is what Jiyong really wanted to be talking about.

“Well, you and Daesung are my friends.” Youngbae says delicately, hoping that he can skirt around the issue, but knowing deep down that he won’t get away with it.

“No, really?” Jiyong says, his voice harsh and sarcastic and exactly as Youngbae imagined it would be. “I thought that we were just visiting aliens down for a short jaunt with our favorite earthling.” Youngbae rolls his eyes and wonders briefly how Jiyong ever became a writer.

“What do you want from me Ji?” He asks, and Jiyong sighs.

“How has this week been?”

“Not uncomfortable.” Youngbae says, and he’s glad that he can be completely truthful about that. 

“Oh  _ good. _ ” Jiyong says, or more: sneers. Youngbae sighs and rolls his eyes. “I mean, we can’t have it being, great or wonderful or even actually  _ comfortable _ .” Youngbae sighs again and Jiyong makes a ‘ _ tut _ ’ noise.

“Ji, I don’t know, it’s hard to talk with him about...feelings.” Youngbae says, running his hand over the back of his neck and looking up at the ceiling.

“Ah...yeah, he’s kind of dense like that...I can see that being a problem.” Jiyong says completely calmly, as if he hadn’t just been being sarcastic and contrary mere sentences previously. Youngbae shrugs and takes a deep breath.

“Yeah, well, now I’m in the uncomfortable position of being unsure if I like him more than he likes me, or...” He lets his sentence trail off; Jiyong didn’t need him to finish the sentence to understand.

“No, if anything, I think that he likes you far more than you like him, and he is completely uncertain how to handle his feelings. If this were someone else I would tell them to just wait it out, but since I need to know what to wear tonight, I’m going to suggest you figure this out sooner rather than later.” Jiyong says, and Youngbae is fairly certain that he’s picking at his nails and staring at himself in the mirror; Jiyong probably considered the problem solved.

Youngbae looks down at his watch and lets out a strangled sigh. “Ji, that gives me only like, three hours!”

“Stop whining.” Jiyong snaps, “You better get going then, as it takes me at  _ least _ an hour to get ready and you don’t want me to be late.” He says before hanging up. Youngbae takes in a deep breath and closes his eyes before dropping the hand holding the phone to his side.

“Well....now what?” Youngbae asks the room, and just as he expected, the room stayed silent. He sighs again and pushes himself up off of the floor. His phone vibrates in his hand and he looks down at it to see that he had received a text message.

He opens it and sees a short message from Daesung:  _ Sorry about him...he’s been worried about you. _ Youngbae smiles briefly before replying with a quick ‘thanks, don’t worry’ and gathers up the rest of his things and shoves them into his bag. He pauses after finishing, staring at himself in the mirror and biting his lip. How should he go about this? He considers texting Seunghyun and suggesting that they meet earlier, but that seems a little impersonal, and also a little odd. He couldn’t just call Seunghyun either, because this was kind of a conversation that needed to happen in person.

He’s stuck staring at his reflection for a couple of minutes, indecision ripping through him. He had less than two hours, really, considering that if Jiyong didn’t hear back from him by the time there was an hour left until they were to meet, then who knew what the he would do. He shakes himself and decides to leave the studio. He was early leaving today, so he knew that Seunghyun would still be in the office and that would give him a chance to...hell, he didn’t know what he was going to do.

He had barely made it to his car when Seunghyun strolled out of the doors from the office building and started toward him. Youngbae had to take a deep breath to keep himself calm as he unlocked his car and threw his bag into the backseat, all the while being far too aware that Seunghyun was getting closer.

“You’re out early.” Seunghyun says, and Youngbae can hear the smile on the taller man’s face. He turns to face Seunghyun and returns the smile.

“Yeah, I couldn’t focus.” He says with a shrug. He leans back against the car, more to give himself something to do than because he actually felt like he needed to do it. Seunghyun nods, his eyes trailing over Youngbae’s face as if he were looking for something.

“What time am I picking you up?” Seunghyun asks, and Youngbae notices that he’s fiddling with his keys, something that he never does. Youngbae smiles inwardly and takes a deep breath.

“Listen, I have to ask...for a couple of reasons,” Youngbae starts before looking down at the ground. Seunghyun’s gaze snaps up to Youngbae’s face, and the intensity of the stare is almost too much for Youngbae. He mentally shakes himself and continues. “Seunghyun, I really do like you... so I need to know how you feel...” He lets his voice trail off and tries not to feel stupid for telling Seunghyun his feelings in the middle of the company parking lot two and a half hours before dinner with their friends.

He allows himself to peek briefly up at Seunghyun and sees that the man is kind of frozen in place, his mouth hanging open just a bit and his eyes unblinking. All at once he seems to catch himself and is blinking rapidly as he slowly moves his head back and picks his jaw up off the floor.

“Ah, Bae...” He says, and Youngbae’s breath catches in his throat and he refuses to look up because he’s not sure what to make of that tone of voice.

***

“You’ve got a text message!” Daesung yells down the hall. Jiyong heaves a sigh but refuses to turn away from the five outfits he has laid out on the bed in front of him.

“Who is it from?” He yells back, though he doesn’t really care. He had just barely finished creating the outfit that he would wear if Youngbae didn’t get back to him about his relationship with Seunghyun, and he was fairly proud of himself. It was far more neutral than he had even imagined that he could accomplish; managing to look both casual and semi-formal all at the same time.

“Youngbae.” Daesung says, and Jiyong barely stops himself from jumping out of his skin.

“How the hell do you do that?” He asks, turning around to take the cellphone out of his boyfriend’s hand while glaring.

Daesung just smiles brightly and shrugs, “I don’t do anything, you just don’t listen.” Jiyong scowls and shoos Daesung out of the room.

“Leave, you’re throwing off my groove.” Jiyong mutters, trying not to allow himself to be sucked into the inviting presence of Daesung’s arms. 

“That’s just mean, you don’t pay attention to me anymore.”.Daesung pouts, a sparkle of mischief in his eyes belying his real thoughts. Jiyong snorts and waves Daesung off as he turns back toward his clothes and the phone in his hands.

“As if I could manage that.” He mutters, and he hears Daesung laugh before the door is closed and he’s left to his own thoughts once more. He opens up the message from Youngbae and reads it carefully, twice. Once he’s satisfied, he throws the phone onto the nightstand with a clatter and starts putting away four of the outfits on the bed.

Daesung tilts his head to the side an hour later as he pulls on his socks while sitting on the bed. Jiyong was standing in front of him, almost completely dressed and playing with his hair in the mirror. The outfit looked great on him, though Daesung wasn’t particularly surprised about that because clothes didn’t make Jiyong look better, Jiyong made clothes look better. 

“What exactly did you say to Youngbae?” Daesung asks, trying to get a feel for what they could be expecting.

“He needed to find out what his relationship status was with Seunghyun.” Jiyong says, turning his head a little in an effort to see the back of his head in the mirror.

“And your reasoning was...” Daesung prompts, knowing full well that whatever Jiyong had told Youngbae had nothing to do with the man’s well-being and more to do with Jiyong’s clothing choices.

“That I needed to know what to wear to dinner tonight; vest or t-shirt, semi-formal or informal.” He responds, completely unapologetic.

Daesung shakes his head and tries not to laugh. “You and Youngbae have an interesting relationship...that doesn’t sound very supportive.” He says. Jiyong just shakes his head and puts his hands on his hips.

“Of course I’m supportive, but sometimes Youngbae needs a shove in the right direction, and he knows how I am about dressing properly for every occasion.” He says, and Daesung just nods because he can’t do anything else.

“So what did he say?” Daesung asks, eyeing the shirt that Jiyong was currently sporting.

Jiyong makes a noncommittal noise and gestures toward the phone. Daesung unlocks the screen and stares down at the two simple words from Youngbae:

_ Pink vest. _


End file.
